Annual report 2022-23

Enquiries

We saw a significant increase in the number of enquiries our office received this financial year (1,183 enquiries compared with 733 enquiries in 2021–22). Enquiries relate to someone requesting general information or raising an issue with our office that is outside our core complaint handling activities. Consistent with past trends, enquiries received in 2022–23 mostly related to matters our office could not consider (1,146).

In response to this increasing demand, we expanded our reporting capability for enquiries. The enquiries we could not consider primarily related to:

• the conduct or performance of a registered health practitioner (458; 40 per cent of enquiries)
• health services (498; 43 per cent of enquiries), of which 13 per cent related to safety and quality of care (152), 9 per cent related to fees and rebates (103) and 9 per cent related to service refusal and delay (101)
• medication, including access to medication, the cost of medication, and safety and approval processes for medications (55; 5 per cent of enquiries)
• handling of concerns by state and territory health complaints entities, regulators, government authorities and other complaints bodies (47; 4 per cent of enquiries).

Most people contacted us to raise concerns about a registered health practitioner or a health service (together, 83 per cent of enquiries). Although we cannot consider these concerns, we refer people to the appropriate service where possible. It is important people can raise these concerns, because they could affect patient safety and the quality of health care received in Australia. In 2022–23, we referred 54 per cent of enquirers to a state or territory health complaints entity (618), 17 per cent to Ahpra to make a notification (199) and 7 per cent to another suitable entity (78).

We also received 30 general enquiries and seven media enquiries in 2022–23.

Ombudsman role

This financial year, we received 663 complaints to the Ombudsman. In line with previous complaint trends, we received the most complaints about how Ahpra and the relevant Board handled a notification (430).

We finalised 657 complaints to the Ombudsman in 2022–23. Our early resolution mechanisms are designed to be quick and to make engaging with our office more straightforward. Often, early intervention is all that is needed to bring about a good result. We finalised 95 per cent of complaints to Ombudsman in 2022–23 without a formal investigation (393 complaints were finalised at the assessment stage, 132 at the early resolution transfer stage and 101 at the preliminary inquiry stage).

Our investigations address complex complaints that usually raise multiple concerns. Investigations help us find out whether there are areas for improvement that need attention. This may result, for example, in the Ombudsman making formal comments or suggestions for improvement to the organisation about how they can address the issues raised in a complaint. We finalised 31 complaints following an investigation in 2022–23. The most common investigation outcome was our office providing feedback to Ahpra about its handling of a matter.

The decrease in complaints received and finalised in 2022–23 compared with last financial year is linked to a significant decrease in the number of COVID-19 pandemic-related complaints. The surge in this type of complaint in 2021–22 was likely driven by a third-party social media post encouraging people to contact us about concerns regarding regulatory responses to COVID-19 vaccinations. If these concerns about Ahpra and the Boards’ response to the pandemic are removed from our data set, our office saw an increase in the number of complaints received this financial year (from 520 in 2021–22 to 651 in 2022–23). Correspondingly, we also saw an increase in the number of complaints finalised this financial year when the pandemic-related complaints are removed from our data set (from 577 in 2021–22 to 643 in 2022–23). The most significant increase this year was complaints received about the notifications process.

Commissioner role

We generally receive fewer concerns related to privacy and FOI matters compared with complaints to the Ombudsman. In 2022–23, we received:

• nine privacy complaints to the Commissioner (down from 13 in 2021–22)
• seven notifiable data breaches (down from eight in 2021–22)
• 22 applications for a review of an Ahpra FOI decision (up from 18 in 2021–22).

In 2022–23, we completed our first investigation of a privacy complaint. The investigation resulted in the Commissioner making a determination, and Ahpra taking steps to correct personal information held on the student register. Conciliation successfully resolved a further two privacy complaints. In addition, we finalised two complaints following preliminary inquiries.

In relation to notifiable data breaches, we received and responded to seven notifications. These data breaches all related to Ahpra’s inadvertent disclosure of personal, sensitive or protected information. In most cases we found that Ahpra had taken appropriate action to address the issue. In one matter we provided guidance to Ahpra regarding further appropriate action.

We received 22 applications for a review of an Ahpra FOI decision and finalised 25 review applications. The Commissioner made a final decision about three review applications.