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Complaint outcomes

Our office provides an independent and impartial complaint handling service

Make a complaint

We see complaints as an invaluable way to identify and address problems with how registered health professions are regulated in Australia.

We work closely with complainants to understand what they are seeking from making a complaint.

Generally, we strive to achieve outcomes for complaints at the individual and system levels.

Individual outcomes

People make complaints to our office for many reasons. We achieve a wide range of outcomes for individual complaints, some of which are specific to the complainant and the issue they have raised.

The most common outcome for complaints related to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) or a National Board involves our office providing a complainant with more information or a better explanation about the decision or action that led to their complaint.

In some cases, our office may also:

speed up the processing of a delayed matter
suggest that an apology be offered
suggest that a decision be reconsidered
decide that the handling of the matter was reasonable and take no further action.

Make a complaint to the Ombudsman

Find out about the three steps to making complaint to the Ombudsman.
Make a complaint to the Commissioner

Find out about the three steps to making a complaint to the Commissioner.
What to expect

Learn more about what to expect when you make a complaint to our office.
Complaint process

Learn more about the key steps in the complaints process.

Make a complaint

Find out more about how to lodge a complaint

System-level improvement

We use complaints as an important tool to identify and address issues that are systemic and could be affecting others.

One way our office helps improve the regulation of health professions is by providing Ahpra, the National Boards and accreditation organisations with suggestions for improvement.

In some instances, the Ombudsman and Commissioner also decides to make formal comments rather than making specific suggestions for improvement.

Suggestions for improvement

Many of the Ombudsman and Commissioner’s suggestions for improvement have resulted in important outcomes. Examples include Ahpra:

reviewing or creating a policy or procedure in response to a matter raised
updating its publicly available information to better inform health practitioners, notifiers and others about particular issues
making its services more available to people who do not have access to a telephone or computer
improving its recordkeeping.

Our office closely monitors the implementation of improvements suggested by the Ombudsman and Commissioner.

Formal comments

Formal comments draw an organisation's attention to an issue that may be an isolated incident or continued problems with an area of work that our office is aware Ahpra is already addressing.