About us

The video begins on a title page with the NHPO's logo. An photo of a man smiling appears as the text ‘The National Health Practitioner Ombudsman. It’s only fair.’ slides into focus.

National Health Practitioner Ombudsman and National Health Practitioner Privacy Commissioner Richelle McCausland begins speaking about the role of her office (the NHPO). When she begins speaking, there is a strip of text at the bottom of the video saying "Richelle McCausland, National Health Practitioner Ombudsman and National Health Practitioner Privacy Commissioner."

Richelle McCausland says: “I'm Richelle McCausland and I'm the National Health Practitioner Ombudsman. The National Health Practitioner Ombudsman ensures that the system that regulates health practitioners in Australia is fair. The aim of health practitioner regulation is to protect the public, to ensure that health practitioners are safe and competent to practice in Australia. It's important that there is an independent body within the system that regulates health practitioners in Australia so that if practitioners have a concern about the way something has been handled, they know that there is a body that they can turn to that's free of charge and accessible, that they can then contact to talk about their concerns and get a resolution.”

Richelle continues, “We take every complaint seriously and try to learn from complaints to then influence systemic improvements than then benefit everyone.” As she says this, there is a banner set in front of a window with the words ‘National Health Practitioner Ombudsman’ and then Richelle is typing and looking at her computer. She continues, “The main responsibility of the NHPO is to handle complaints about the way that a matter has been handled and there are several types of complaints that people make to us. They can be complaints about a registration issue for a health practitioner, [and] complaints about the way that a notification matter has been handled.” As she says this, large white text appears saying, ‘We can help with complaints about registration” and “We can help with complaints about notifications.”

A woman types on her keyboard and looks at her computer screen as Richelle’s voiceover says, “We can also receive complaints about accreditation processes. So that can mean the accreditation of a program of study that leads to registration as a health practitioner, or it can also mean processes around the assessment of internationally qualified health practitioners.” White text appears stating, ‘We can help with complaints about accreditation.”

Richelle says, “The role of my office is to ensure that processes are fair and reasonable and that they're compliant with the law. We don't look at whether the decision was right and wrong.” As her voiceover continues, a man is shown at his desk as he types an email. Richelle says, “We're looking at whether the process that was followed to reach that decision was fair. And we're really focused on trying to get a good outcome for the individual complainant.”

A speech bubble on a column in an office reads, ‘We champion fairness through investigating complaints, facilitating resolutions and making recommendations to improve the regulation of Australia’s registered health practitioners.’ A woman with blond hair looks at her computer screen before Richelle is seen again as she says, ”It's important that people contact us when they have concerns about the way that something has been handled so that we can learn from that complaint and then improve processes more generally so that other people don't experience the same issues.”

At the end of the video there is page that says, ‘Learn more’ with icons to support visiting the NHPO’s website at nhpo.gov.au, emailing complaints@nhpo.gov.au or calling 1300 795 265. A final page credit shows the NHPO's logo and says, "Authorised by the National Health Practitioner Ombudsman."