Answer: The Medical Council is a statutory authority whose main role is to ensure doctors are fit to practise medicine. It achieves this by ensuring that registered doctors maintain proper standards of conduct and competance.
The Health Care Complaints Commission is also an independent statutory body whose main role is to receive and investigate complaints about health care. The HCCC deals with complaints concerning the care and treatment provided by health practitioners and health services, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, hospitals and other health care providers.
Both bodies can receive complaints against doctors and they work together to assess all complaints received. Matters that appear to raise significant issues of public safety or to provide grounds for disciplinary action against a doctor are referred to the HCCC for investigation. The Council has no power to investigate complaints.
The HCCC consults with the Council during the complaint process, but the final decision on an investigation outcome rests with the HCCC. The HCCC is the body that prosecutes serious cases before disciplinary bodies.
