Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Foreword
- Contents
- List of tables
- Preface
- Preface to the 1997 edition
- Acknowledgments
- About the authors
- Table of cases
- Table of statutes
- 1 Ethical principles for the medical profession
- 2 Ethical and legal responsibilities of medical students
- 3 Communication skills
- 4 Consent and informed decision making
- 5 Confidentiality, privacy and disclosure
- 6 Medical records, reports and certificates
- 7 Negligence, professional liability and adverse events
- 8 The regulation of the medical profession
- 9 Health care complaints systems
- 10 The doctor and sexual boundaries
- 11 Personal health of the doctor: illness and impairment
- 12 Maintenance of professional competence
- 13 Ethics and the allocation of health-care resources
- 14 The Australian health-care system
- 15 The doctor and interprofessional relationships
- 16 Entering and leaving practice and practice management
- 17 Clinical research
- 18 Prescribing and administering drugs
- 19 Diagnosing and certifying death and the role of the coroner
- 20 Births, reproductive technology, family law and child protection
- 21 Termination of pregnancy and related issues
- 22 Withholding or withdrawing treatment in the seriously or terminally ill
- 23 The law and the mentally ill
- 24 The law and courts of law in Australia
- 25 Medico-legal examinations and reports, court procedures and expert evidence
- 26 Other legislation relevant to medical practice
- APPENDIX 1 AMA CODE OF ETHICS – 2004
- Index
- References
9 - Health care complaints systems
- Frontmatter
- Foreword
- Contents
- List of tables
- Preface
- Preface to the 1997 edition
- Acknowledgments
- About the authors
- Table of cases
- Table of statutes
- 1 Ethical principles for the medical profession
- 2 Ethical and legal responsibilities of medical students
- 3 Communication skills
- 4 Consent and informed decision making
- 5 Confidentiality, privacy and disclosure
- 6 Medical records, reports and certificates
- 7 Negligence, professional liability and adverse events
- 8 The regulation of the medical profession
- 9 Health care complaints systems
- 10 The doctor and sexual boundaries
- 11 Personal health of the doctor: illness and impairment
- 12 Maintenance of professional competence
- 13 Ethics and the allocation of health-care resources
- 14 The Australian health-care system
- 15 The doctor and interprofessional relationships
- 16 Entering and leaving practice and practice management
- 17 Clinical research
- 18 Prescribing and administering drugs
- 19 Diagnosing and certifying death and the role of the coroner
- 20 Births, reproductive technology, family law and child protection
- 21 Termination of pregnancy and related issues
- 22 Withholding or withdrawing treatment in the seriously or terminally ill
- 23 The law and the mentally ill
- 24 The law and courts of law in Australia
- 25 Medico-legal examinations and reports, court procedures and expert evidence
- 26 Other legislation relevant to medical practice
- APPENDIX 1 AMA CODE OF ETHICS – 2004
- Index
- References
Summary
Prior to the mid-1980s, the only agencies with statutory powers to handle complaints against doctors were the state and territory medical boards. Medical boards were obliged under the relevant medical Acts to investigate the complaints and determine whether a complaint constituted unprofessional conduct under the Act. Complaints were sometimes also made to state branches of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), to medical colleges and to the state health departments, but these organisations did not have disciplinary powers.
During the 1980s there was dissatisfaction with the health complaints processes in several states, especially in regard to their fragmented nature, difficulties in access, difficulties in knowing where to complain and the recognition that complainants' needs were not always met when the complaints were determined by the medical board according to the terms of the legislation. In New South Wales, the response to this dissatisfaction was the establishment in 1984 of a Health Complaints Unit within the Health Department, and in Victoria by the passing in 1987 of the Health Services (Conciliation and Review) Act. This Act established the office of the Health Services Commissioner, who was charged with receiving complaints from users of health services about providers and given the power to conciliate them confidentially.
In 1991 in Queensland the Health Rights Commission Act 1991 established the Office of the Health Rights Commissioner.
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- Information
- Good Medical PracticeProfessionalism, Ethics and Law, pp. 145 - 155Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010