You have a right to make a complaint

Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (APHRA) works alongside the National Boards to ensure that Australia’s registered health practitioners are suitably trained, qualified and safe to practise.

APHRA provides steps in raising a complaint and provides a platform through which a complaint can be raised. They also allow you to search up your health practitioner to see if they are qualified, if they are registered and their current registration status.

Care Opinion is a not-for-profit organisation that facilitates transparent, two-way feedback about personal experiences of care via an online public platform. Using Care Opinion, patients can anonymously provide feedback - good or bad - to which health services must provide a response within 72 hours.

Being online makes this service completely transparent - the responses are publicly available for all to see: patients, clinicians and communities.

They also have a clear approach to visually mapping changes that come about as a result of feedback, meaning that services are more likely to follow through and deliver tangible change.

HaDSCO is an independent Statutory Authority providing an impartial resolution service for complaints relating to health, mental health and disability services in Western Australia and the Indian Ocean Territories. Their services are free, impartial, confidential and available to everyone.

The Chief Psychiatrist is an independent statutory officer responsible for overseeing and ensuring the safety and well-being of patients. The Chief Psychiatrist is also responsible for monitoring and reporting restrictive practice, and ensuring compliance with the standards of care set out by the Mental Health Act 2014.

The Chief Psychiatrist also has the following statutory responsibilities:

• Requests for reports

• Review of treatment

• Power of inspection

• Power of Disclosure

• Monitoring of notifiable incidents

• Preparation of an annual report