Making a complaint about a health service

Healthcare services should make information about their feedback processes easy to find. The Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights includes information on what it means to you as a patient, consumer, family member or carer using the Victorian health system.

If you are unhappy with the health service you receive in Victoria, you can make a complaint.

There are different ways to raise any questions or concerns about your treatment in hospital or a health service.

Public hospital complaints

If you have feedback or a complaint about a Victorian public hospital:

Step 1. Contact the relevant hospital's patient representative or consumer liaison officer. The complaint process can be found on the hospital website.

Step 2: If your complaint cannot be resolved at Step 1, or you are dissatisfied with the outcome, you can lodge a formal complaint with an independent, regulatory body or authority such as the Health Complaints Commission. It is a good idea to phone the regulatory body or authority first, to make sure they are the right organisation to deal with your complaint. They will explain their complaints process to you.

Private hospital complaints

If you have feedback or a complaint about a Victorian private hospital:

Step 1: Contact the relevant hospital's complaints officer.

Step 2: If you are not satisfied with the facility’s response to your complaint, you can direct it to the:

• Health Complaints Commissioner, see Make a complaint
• Department of Health Private Hospitals Unit privatehospitals@health.vic.gov.au

You can make a complaint if you feel that you:

• were not given satisfactory healthcare
• were not treated with dignity and respect
• were not given adequate information about services or treatments, including costs, so that you could make an informed choice
• were not given access to information about your healthcare when you asked for it
• did not give consent and your health information was shared inappropriately with others
• had your privacy breached.

For more information, see Complaints about private health service establishments on the Department of Health website.

Health practitioner complaints

If you feel uneasy about a doctor’s conduct or performance, trust your judgement—it may indicate unsafe or inappropriate practice. There are steps you can take:

Step 1: Talk it through with a trusted person or another health professional.

Step 2: Raise your concern with your doctor directly, or with the healthcare service they work for (verbally or in writing). Include details of what happened, who was involved, and what resolution you want.

Step 3: If you are not satisfied with the facility’s response to your complaint, you can then direct it to the:

• Health Complaints Commissioner, see Make a complaint or
• Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA)

AHPRA and the Medical Board can impose conditions, suspend or cancel registration, issue cautions, fines, or refer serious cases to tribunals.

Good medical practice depends on trust, respect, openness and good communication between doctors, patients and their families. The Medical Board of Australia has issued Good medical practice: a code of conduct for doctors in Australia, which describes what is expected of all medical practitioners registered to practise medicine in Australia.

Mental health services complaints

If you are unhappy with any part of your mental health care, you have the right to make a complaint.

Complaints about public mental health services

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission can assist you with your complaint about publicly funded mental health and wellbeing services in Victoria.

Complaints about private mental health service

The Health Complaints Commissioner can assist you with complaints about private mental health and wellbeing services and providers in Victoria.

For more information, see Making a complaint about a mental health service.

Making a complaint to the Department of Health

You can provide feedback to the Department of Health in several ways, including by mail, email, online or over the phone.

This feedback might relate to:

• a complaint about the services that we fund and provide
• the actions of our employees
• the action of our authorised officers.

If you have a complaint, take the following steps to get your complaint resolved:

Step 1. Discuss your complaint with a staff member from where you received the service.

Step 2. If your complaint cannot be resolved at Step 1, or you are dissatisfied with the outcome, you can choose one of the following ways to lodge a formal complaint with our department:

Submit your complaint online via our online form.

Email our Feedback and complaints team via health.feedback@health.vic.gov.au

Mail: Health Feedback, GPO Box 4057, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000.

Phone: 1300 229 075.

For more information, see Feedback and complaints on our Department of Health website.