I'm not an expert on anything, but I think I can give you some advice... you talk about complaining, but what is it that you want? If you just want to alert someone to a problem, to do with organisation or the safety of the emergency help cords, then you will have no problems if you keep sending letters to people with authority until they agree to look into the problem. (If you really wanted them to do something, and they were being really stubborn, you could threaten to, or really go to, a national newspaper with your story.) If you want compensation, then you'll need to follow a different route entirely. You would need to show that the negligence of the hospital (and/or its staff) had caused you to lose out in some way. You don't mention needing extra time off work or anything because of what happened, although if you did need extra time off then you could try to make a claim. It seems that the worst aspect for you is having nightmares about the incident, in which case for compensation you would need to argue that they had caused you emotional distress, or something similar. For this I guess you would need a doctor/ psychologist's report, which stated that you had nightmares and that they affected your mental health detrimentally. If you go to your doctor stating the nightmares as a problem and asking to see a psychologist, then you might be referred, in which case a general report would be free. Otherwise, these kinds of reports can be costly, and they often only state the very minimum information. Although if you won the case, you would probably be able to claim the cost of the report back.