Our commitment to you: Listen, respond, learn.
The purpose of AHPRA’s Complaints Management Framework is to listen to the concerns raised by people, and respond to complaints promptly, empathetically and fairly. We are committed to excellent customer service and continuous improvement.
Feedback is always welcome and helps us improve our services. This information is for anyone who wants to provide feedback or make a complaint about AHPRA, a Board or committee and/or the behaviour of an AHPRA staff member or a Board or committee member.
We also want to hear from you if you think we are doing well. If you have a compliment for one of our staff, we will make sure we pass your feedback on.
We want to understand and resolve your issue as quickly as possible. If you are unhappy with our service, or administrative actions please raise your concern with the staff member who had responsibility for managing your matter. We will listen to your concern and try to resolve it as quickly as possible. If the staff member who had responsibility for managing your matter is unable to resolve your concern to your satisfaction the next step is to contact our National Complaints Management Team. You can contact the complaints management team by email at AHPRAfeedback@ahpra.gov.au or by calling 1300 419 495.
A complaint (or any feedback) can be made by:
Our principles guide our actions in responding to your complaint.
Our complaints handling policy and procedures ensure that your concerns are treated seriously and are addressed promptly and fairly.
This policy provides more information on how we manage complaints about AHPRA, a Board or committee and/or the behaviour of an AHPRA staff member or a Board member
We aim to resolve your complaint about us as soon as possible and keep you informed at each stage of the process. When we receive a complaint we carefully review the information you have provided and how you would like to see your complaint resolved. We then conduct a review of the information we hold in our records. When we respond to your complaint we may do one or more of the following:
If you are unhappy with the way your complaint about AHPRA is dealt with, you can contact the National Health Practitioner Ombudsman.
The National Health Practitioner Ombudsman receives complaints and helps people who think they may have been treated unfairly in administrative processes by the national agencies in the National Scheme.
The Ombudsman will usually only deal with complaints that have already been lodged with AHPRA, and after AHPRA has been given a reasonable opportunity to resolve the complaint in line with our complaints handling policy and procedure. You can read more about making a complaint to the Ombudsman in the policy and procedure document.
AHPRA has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Office of the National Health Practitioner Ombudsman and Privacy Commissioner which sets the agreed ways in which both organisations work together.
In February 2019, the National Health Practitioner Ombudsman and Privacy Commissioner and AHPRA jointly commissioned an independent review of the interface between the two agencies. This followed a significant increase in complaints to the National Health Practitioner Ombudsman and steps AHPRA had taken to improve its processes for handling complaints.
Read a summary of the report, Review of interface between the National Health Practitioner Ombudsman and Privacy Commissioner and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.
AHPRA has a Public interest disclosure (Whistleblower) policy for dealing with allegations of serious misconduct or impropriety in the administration of the National Law. Read more information about these specific concerns on the Public interest disclosure (Whistleblower) policy page.
The policy, procedures and form on this page do not relate to the reporting of concerns about the conduct, health or performance of an individual health practitioner.
If your concern is about a registered health practitioner you need to visit the Raise a concern page of our website. If you’re a health practitioner and have a query about your registration please contact our Customer Service Team.
For more information visit How are notifications managed?
For further information about how we manage administrative complaints about AHPRA contact our Complaints Management Team at AHPRAfeedback@ahpra.gov.au, contact our Customer Service Team on 1300 419 495 or make an online enquiry.