Miss F, an overweight 11-year-old, attended her GP, Dr A, complaining of knee pain and clicking for two months following a twisting injury whilst playing football...

Child H, a three-year-old boy, was brought into the Emergency Department (ED) of a private hospital by his mother, having inhaled or swallowed a little building brick. They brought a similar piece with them. Child H was seen by a doctor, Dr W, who documented that he appeared well, with no signs of respiratory distress and a normal auscultation. Dr W arranged for him to have a chest x-ray, which both Dr W and a radiologist considered normal.

Three-year-old Matthew was brought to the local A&E department by his mum, Mrs U. She told Dr M, the attending doctor, that Matthew had fallen from a chair three days ago and, although he seemed unharmed at the time, he was now refusing to walk.

Surgery for an arachnoid cyst is complicated by an intracranial bleed.

At presentation, Peter was 14 years old and had presented with migraines since the age of 8. He was taking Pizotifen and his headaches were well controlled. Over the past four weeks he had started getting headaches again. They were in a similar location to his migraines, but were different in nature – he couldn’t put his finger on exactly how.

Valid consent is just as important when treating children and young people as it is with adults. In some situations children are able to give consent themselves, and sometimes others need to take the decision on their behalf. This factsheet sets out the basic information to enable you to obtain the appropriate consent from children and young people.

Mrs G, 34, presented to the delivery suite at 12pm, 38 weeks into her first pregnancy. Her antenatal care had been uneventful apart from measuring slightly “large for dates”. She was found to have a longitudinal lie with a cephalic presentation, and was experiencing three contractions every ten minutes. The midwife examined her and found her to be 2cm dilated with a fully effaced cervix and “intact membranes”.

A baby was born by caesarean section at 27 weeks gestation with a birth weight of 980grams. The baby was intubated, ventilated and endotracheal surfactant was administered.

Complaints in health and social care: standards and guidelines for resolution and learning (2009) aims to provide a simple, consistent approach for staff who handle complaints, and for patients who raise complaints across all health and social care services.