The National Health Service is facing unprecedented expectations for high quality and safe and timely care. Patients now have more effective mechanisms for registering complaints if these expectations are not met. Increasingly, medico-legal means are being used by patients to express their dissatisfaction with their care and to seek compensation if injured. Clinical risk management offers benefits to both patients and care-givers alike. This paper outlines the development of clinical risk management throughout the UK, the benefits of establishing a comprehensive programme and the identified benefits to date. Clinical risk management takes time and is not a quick fix. However perseverance can mean a dramatic reduction in patient injuries and claims, a reduction which will free resources for the provision of patient care.