Office of the Health Services Commissioner Annual Report 2008

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Nature of Complaint HRA Issue Access & Correction 2 Data Quality 0 Use & Disclosure 2 HSCR Issue Access 9 Administration 2 Communication 7 Cost 0 Rights 3 Treatment 14 Not specified 0 Total 39 Table 11 ATSI Complaints and Enquiries Registrar’s Report Shiranee Sinnathamby Registrar The Registrar’s role of interacting on a regular basis with health registration boards and other agencies has continued to the mutual benefit of all parties. Assistance is provided to each other by providing and receiving advice and making decisions about the management of complaints and notifications, as and when they are received. Complaints which may be conciliated are addressed by the OHSC while matters pertaining to professional conduct issues are addressed by the registration boards. The implementation of the Health Professions Registration Act 2005 (HPRA) posed no difficulties and saw the smooth transition and continuation of business between the registration boards and the OHSC. During the year under review the OHSC received a total of 684 notifications from 11 registration boards, for comment. Of these 21 notifications were referred formally to the OHSC for attention. By comparison, 413 OHSC matters were forwarded to the boards for comment and again, following discussion, 58 of these were referred formally for consideration by the boards. Of the 1,097 complaints/notifications discussed, 685 were about medical practitioners, 189 related to dental practitioners, 60 concerned pharmacists while 54 matters were complaints pertaining to psychologists. This meant that 988 complaints/notifications related to practitioners registered with four of the boards with 109 matters being complaints/notifications about practitioners registered with the remaining eight boards. Table 12 provides an analysis of these figures. Organisation Board complaints discussed with HSC HSC complaints discussed with Boards HSC complaints formally referred to Boards Board complaints formally referred to HSC Chinese Medicine Registration Board 19 1 0 0 Chiropractors Registration Board of Victoria 9 2 2 0 Dental Practice Board of Victoria 112 77 6 1 Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria 406 279 34 15 Medical Radiation Practitioners Board of Victoria 0 1 0 0 Nurses Board of Victoria 29 9 3 2 Optometrists Registration Board of Victoria 3 13 2 0 Osteopaths Registration Board of Victoria 4 0 0 0 Pharmacy Board of Victoria 49 11 4 3 Physiotherapists Registration Board of Victoria 6 8 1 0 Podiatrists Registration Board of Victoria 1 4 2 0 Psychologists Registration Board of Victoria 46 89 4 0 Total 684 413 58 21 Table 12 Dealings with Registration Boards The table below gives comparative figures of discussions and referrals between the registration boards and the OHSC over a four year period. There has not been a great deal of variance over the four year period. 20 Office of the Health Services Commissioner | Annual Report 2008
Year Board notifications discussed with OHSC HSC complaints discussed with boards HSC complaints formally referred to boards Board notifications formally referred to HSC 2005 708 390 57 18 2006 585 365 45 20 2007 695 435 63 20 2008 684 413 58 21 Table 13 Comparison of total complaint numbers and those referred in the past four years The Office’s interactions with other agencies continued with Memorandums of Understanding being drawn up with the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist and the Aged Care Complaints Investigations Scheme, establishing protocols for the exchange of complaint related information between the OHSC and these organisations. Meetings were held with the State Coroner’s Office and the Disability Services Commissioner’s Office and protocols agreed to for the sharing of information. Regular interactions with other agencies have continued satisfactorily and to the mutual benefit of all concerned. During the year under review the OHSC referred five complaints to the Disability Services Commissioner and one complaint each was referred to WorkSafe Victoria, the State Coroner, the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist and Supported Residential Services, DHS. In terms of referrals in to the OHSC from other agencies, eight referrals were made by the Aged Care Complaints Investigations Scheme and six came from Consumer Affairs. The Ombudsman regularly refers matters to the OHSC and these are covered in the section pertaining to prisoner complaints. Apart from the prisoner complaints one other matter was referred to the OHSC by the Ombudsman. Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI), nine FOI requests were processed during the year as opposed to three the preceding year. The Registrar’s role includes the approval and assessment of complaints, providing advice and support as a member of the assessment team, deputising for the Manager of Assessment and Investigation as required and participating in training activities the Office undertakes for external groups and individuals on an ongoing basis. Meetings are arranged between OHSC staff and registration boards’ complaint handling staff and with staff of other agencies. These have proven to be useful forums for the exchange of ideas, policy development, education and training, as are the regular meetings of CEOs/Registrars. The co-operation of the registration boards’ CEOs/Registrars and other staff of the boards, and all staff members of other agencies who work closely with the OHSC is greatly appreciated. Health Professions Registration Act 2005 and Investigation Review Panels Following the Department of Human Services “Review of the Regulation of the Health Professions” conducted between 2002 and 2005, the Health Professions Registration Act 2005 (HPRA) was passed by Victoria’s Parliament in November 2005 and came into operation on 1 July 2007. It repealed the eleven separate health practitioner registration Acts and section 108AL of the Health Act 1958 relating to medical radiation practitioners. The HPRA covers people who are or will be registered as Chinese medicine practitioners, chiropractors, dental care providers, medical practitioners, medical radiation practitioners, nurses, optometrists, osteopaths, pharmacists, physiotherapists, podiatrists and psychologists. The HPRA established a statutory merits review for complainants who are aggrieved by a registration board decision not to investigate their complaint, to close their complaint following investigation, or a decision to forward the complaint to an internal ‘professional standards panel’ of the board rather than to the VCAT for hearing. The right of review has been framed to respond to concerns of consumers, some of whom do not have confidence in the transparency and fairness of registration board complaints handling. It is designed to provide a better balance between the rights and needs of consumers, and those of practitioners. When a registration board receives a complaint about a registered health practitioner, the board has powers to appoint an investigator, conduct an investigation and then decide whether disciplinary action is required, and if so, what type and what sanctions should be imposed on the practitioner. Section 60 of the HPRA provides that a notifier (the term used in the HPRA to describe a person who makes a complaint to a registration board about a registered practitioner) may apply to a responsible board for review of an investigation decision, for example, if the notifier is dissatisfied with the decision. On receipt of such an application, the responsible board is required to establish an Investigation Review Panel (IRP). Schedule 2 of the HPRA sets out the requirements the board must comply with when convening an IRP. An IRP must be made up of a lawyer (who chairs the panel), a practitioner member, and a nominee of the HSC. The HSC is a statutory officer, with powers established under the HSCR. The intent is that a nominee of the HSC will bring a level of independent scrutiny to the review of a complaint by a registration board. As detailed in Section 60 of the HPRA, board decisions that an IRP can review include: • the decision not to investigate a notification; • the decision to close a matter following investigation, with no further action; or • the decision to refer a matter to an internally convened professional standards panel, rather than for external hearing by VCAT. An IRP has and may exercise all the powers of an investigator under the HPRA. After completing a review of a decision, the panel may: a. affirm the earlier decision of the responsible board, b. refer the matter to the board with a request for an investigation, c. refer the matter back to the board or the investigator for further investigation, d. in the case of the review of a decision to take no further action, it may substitute its own decision from the range of decisions originally available to the board following an investigation (such as Office of the Health Services Commissioner | Annual Report 2008 21
Page 1 and 2: HERE FOR ALL VICTORIANS Office of t
Page 3 and 4: Contents Glossary of Abbreviations
Page 5 and 6: Beth Wilson Victoria’s Health Ser
Page 7 and 8: Health Services Review Council Pres
Page 9 and 10: Membership Council members are repr
Page 11 and 12: Statutory Functions Office of the H
Page 13 and 14: Public Interest Issues Cancer Treat
Page 15 and 16: Throughout this Report anecdotal in
Page 17 and 18: How Complaints Are Managed The enqu
Page 19 and 20: Assessment Report An Assessment off
Page 21: Lynn Buchanan Senior Conciliator HS
Page 25 and 26: Reasons For Complaints Complaints r
Page 27 and 28: Communication The sub-issues where
Page 29 and 30: Categories of Accepted Complaints A
Page 31 and 32: Dentists Most complaints made about
Page 33 and 34: Hospital Complaints Data Complaints
Page 35 and 36: 2006-2007 2007-2008 Admissions 236
Page 37 and 38: Manager, Executive Services Michael
Page 39 and 40: Human Research Ethics Committees (H
Page 41 and 42: Merit and Equity Employment The OHS
Page 43 and 44: Providers Last year’s report indi
Page 45 and 46: Corporate Services Joe Barczak Info
Page 47 and 48: Appendix 1 Providers by Type and Me
Page 49 and 50: Appendix 3: HCIP Service provided a
Page 52: Office of the Health Services Commi

Office of the Health Services Commissioner Annual Report 2008

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