In the past year, the number of complaints received by Western Australia’s Health and Disability Services Complaints Office (HaDSCO) increased by 13%.
The office, which provides a pathway for alternative dispute resolution or investigation when patients are unable to resolve their complaints directly with providers, received a total of 3257 complaints across the 12 months to June 30.
HaDSCO’s latest annual report revealed that 72% of complaints received and closed in the past year were related to health and 22% were related to mental health. Some 6% were outside of the offices’ jurisdiction.
When the office receives complaints about registered health practitioners, it consults with Ahpra to determine which agency should manage the complaint.
In the 2024-25 reporting year the body consulted with Ahpra in relation to 302 complaints.
For health complaints that were dealt with and closed, 37% concerned services provided by hospitals, 19% provided by medical practices, and 17% provided by prison health services.
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One in three complaints about West Australian hospitals last year were related to emergency departments, while 16% were in regard to general medicine and 10% about general surgery.
Some 7% of complaints related to obstetrics and gynaecology and 4% were about administrative or accounts matters.
The most common issue for health complaints centred on quality of care (41%), while 15% were around communication, 14% access and 9% cost.
Access was highlighted as an issue in regard to the prison health service, with 34% of access complaints about such services.
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The report detailed redress and service delivery improvement outcomes, which in seven cases resulted in alternative or corrective treatments and 93 cases saw an apology provided to the complainant.
A total of 390 complaints resulted in an explanation being provided.
Service delivery improvements were delivered in 89 cases, which included six cases that resulted in clinical or policy improvements, 37 that resulted in administrative or policy improvements and another 37 that resulted in staff education or training.
Health Consumers’ Council executive director Clare Mullen said feedback from patients and families about their experiences and care was an important part of quality improvement.
“There have obviously been well publicised reports of pressure on our public hospitals and while it’s hard to be sure about what drove the increase in complaints, it matches what we’ve seen in our individual advocacy service – where we had a 12% increase on the previous year,” she said.
Ms Mullen said the Council would like to see the complaints and feedback process strengthened by providing more independent advocacy support to health consumers.
Health Minister Meredith Hammat was contacted for comment.
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