Has anyone ever made a complaint about you to AHPRA or your professional board?
The rates at which complaints are made about health professionals may surprise you. The good news is that a huge proportion of the complaints that are made about health professionals are eventually resolved without any action being taken. They may be found to be trivial or vexatious, or not supported by the evidence.
The processing of a complaint is slow and in the meantime we all live in a state of high anxiety wondering what the outcome will be. Of course, we all assume the worst. Waiting to hear the outcome can seem like cruel and unusual punishment for a “crime” that may never have been committed!
Talking to an Expert
Just recently I invited Dr Kathryn Hutt, director of Doctors Health NSW to talk to me about how we can survive this process when that (almost) inevitable complaint comes along. Doctors Health NSW runs a 24-hour call line for doctors in distress providing peer support and advice. About one fifth of the calls received by the call line are from doctors who are involved in the complaints process.
Kathryn has also had experience of the process from the side of the regulator, having worked for the NSW Medical Board. She understands the process very well.
What to do first
Kathryn’s advice starts with encouragement to keep things in perspective. Remember, receiving a notification of a complaint is a normal part of life for today’s health professional. The existence of a formal complaint does not however mean that any action beyond investigation will come of it.
It’s important to loop in your indemnity insurer the very second you get notification of a complaint. They are able to advise you in relation to the complaint. They will help you with your responses to the regulator and advise you whether your intuitive responses (like anger or an urge to apologise) are wise. Mostly, they will tell you not to contact the complainant irrespective of your intentions toward them.
What to do next
As far as the complaint goes, once the paperwork is submitted there is nothing for you to do for weeks or even months while the regulator works on investigating the complaint. Your job is to stay well both mentally and physically during that time.
Most people choose to keep working but for some the level of stress may mean some rearrangement of work plans is required. A holiday or a temporary change of working hours may help, and it would be great to make those changes before the stress takes too much of a toll.
In the meantime, don’t try to go it alone. Kathryn suggests several kinds of people that you may need to talk to.
- Talk to someone about the stress itself – maybe your GP, a mental health professional (perhaps via Black Dog Institute’s The Essential Network for Health Professionals – TEN), the Medical Benevolent Society or a similar organisation for your professional group or the Doctors Help Line
- Talk to a trusted colleague about the substance of the complaint
- Talk to someone who has been through the complaints process and survived
- Stay connected with life and the world – your family and friends, your personal interests and hobbies, your self-care habits (more exercise, less alcohol!)
Its important that when you emerge from the complaints process you are still fit and healthy and connected with the life you love. It’s just one of life’s little rocky byways that you can eventually look back on and say, “thank goodness that’s over!”
Resources
Your indemnity insurer
TEN: The Essential Network for Health Professionals
Black Dog Institute
About the author
