What we can help with

The Office of the Health Ombudsman is here to listen to your concerns and try to help you to resolve them.

We can receive and manage complaints and notifications involving:

registered health practitioners such as doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, psychologists and other health practitioners registered with Ahpra
unregistered health practitioners such as counsellors, massage therapists, assistant nurses, dieticians, speech therapists, audiologists, alternative healthcare providers; workers providing support services to health services such as security guards, and workers providing health services in aged care or disability services
public and private hospitals
any service or facility where a health service is provided such as dental or medical clinics, community health or rehabilitation centres, aged care facilities, disability services, imaging and radiation services, ambulance services.

A complaint can be about a healthcare experience. It can also be about concerns about the performance and/or conduct of a practitioner or the way in which a practitioner or a service is providing their services. We can deal with a wide range of issues, so if you have a concern about a health practitioner or a health service, contact us to discuss how we can help.

The most common complaints we receive relate to

professional conduct, health and performance
diagnosis, treatment or care
access to services
quality and safety including systemic issues
serious clinical adverse outcomes and deaths
sharing your information without permission
respect and dignity
communication about treatment, options and costs
your involvement in healthcare decisions
inappropriate behaviour by a health service provider
inappropriate/criminal conduct of a registered practitioner unrelated to practise
the way your health service provider handles your complaint.

Definitions

‘Health service’ is defined as a service that is or purports to be for maintaining, improving, restoring or managing people’s health and wellbeing, and includes a ‘support service’ (see definition of ‘support service’) for a health service and any form of consultation, interview, examination, assessment, advising, or otherwise treating a patient, whether it is in person or on a communication device. For a full definition of ‘health service’, please see section 7 of the Health Ombudsman Act 2013.

‘Support service’ for a health service, means a service providing business support, clinical support, corporate support or other support to the health service. See schedule 1 of the Health Ombudsman Act 2013 for examples of a support service.