Common complaints
You can lodge a complaint about the clinical care and treatment, professional behaviour or health of a registered medical practitioner in NSW.
This list outlines some of the most common types of complaints we receive:
Concerns a doctor is providing unsafe clinical care and treatment, such as:
- misdiagnosing a condition
- not providing the right treatment
- breaching infection control standards
- not keeping or recording important information in patient records
- breaching a restriction on their registration
Concerns about the way a doctor behaves may include:
- disclosing confidential patient information
- engaging in sexual misconduct with a patient
- not adequately telling you about the risks of a proposed treatment
- lack of responsiveness to patient needs
- refusal to see a patient
- providing health services that are excessive, unnecessary or not required
The Council also deals with concerns that a doctor has a health issue or impairment that might cause harm to a member of the public if it is not appropriately managed, such as psychiatric or psychological issue or a problem with alcohol or drugs.
Feedback about our work
Our aim is to improve public safety and wellbeing through fair, efficient and consistent regulation of medical practitioners in NSW. If you have any concerns about the way we do our work, you can make a complaint, provide feedback or make an inquiry about our policies, procedures or processes.
We are always looking for ways to improve the quality of our work and welcome your feedback.
People providing feedback have rights and responsibilities, including:
- providing feedback that is reasonable, lawful and appropriate
- to be treated with courtesy and respect
- to be provided with adequate information in a timely manner.
You can provide feedback about our administrative and business processes using our online form or via email at mail@hpca.nsw.gov.au.