Healthcare feedback and complaints

Learn about your rights to provide feedback and make complaints about your health care. Understand how the process works and what to expect.

Learn more about:

• Overview
• The importance of feedback
• How to give feedback or complain
• Making a formal health care complaint
• Medical negligence

Overview

You can give feedback or make a complaint about your health care whether you are treated in a public or private hospital or treatment centre, or if you see a practitioner in a private clinic. Complaints will be managed differently depending on the type of concern and the state or territory where you are having care.

Health services are also expected to acknowledge patient harm by telling you if something has gone wrong during your care, how it may affect you and what is being done to make care safe. Ask your health service if it has a policy around providing this information and what the steps are under their policy.

For more information, visit the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care and search for “open disclosure guide for patients”

The importance of feedback

Feedback helps to improve care. It lets health services know what is working well and what could be improved, and it helps keep care safe. You can share positive feedback through compliments, and offer suggestions for ways your treatment experience could be made better.

How to give feedback or make a complaint

All health care services should have ways for patients to give feedback and make complaints. Check with the cancer care coordinator, clinical unit manager or social worker. Some hospitals have a patient representative or patient advocate who looks after patient concerns. You can usually find their details on the hospital’s website.

Raising the issue may mean you get a different view of why something happened, and talking about it may help you understand what is happening and could make you feel better about your situation. You can also ask a friend or relative to raise a concern for you.

If you don’t feel comfortable raising the issue directly, or you weren’t happy with the initial discussions, you may prefer to send an email or write a letter. If you write your complaint, you may need to wait for a reply. Health professionals must keep any complaints you lodge private, unless an exception (such as mandatory reporting) applies.

If you have concerns about your private health fund and have been unable to resolve these issues with the fund, the Commonwealth Ombudsman looks after private health insurance complaints and may be able to help.

→ READ MORE: Making a formal health care complaint

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