There are many different possible outcomes of a complaint, including:

No action

A council won't take any action where it does not have jurisdiction. This includes:

• complaints about organisations that provide health services in NSW such as  a hospital or clinic,
• complaints about registered health practitioners or students in states other than NSW 
• complaints about unregistered health practitioners
• customer service or consumer complaints about issues such as requests for refunds or queries regarding billing

No further action following a council process

After a council has looked at your complaint, they might decide that they don’t need to take any more regulatory action to manage risk to the public and protect public safety. Sometimes this is because the practitioner has learned from what has happened and the Councils thinks the same thing may not happen again. Other times it’s because the council interviewed or counselled a practitioner.

The council will tell you what it decides to do and what has happened.

Restricting practice

Sometimes as a result of a complaint, a practitioner’s practice is restricted in some way to keep the public safe. This is done by imposing conditions on their registration.

Suspension

Councils have the power to act quickly in urgent cases by suspending a practitioner’s registration to protect public health and safety, or in the public interest, while we make other inquiries. This is an interim step called taking ‘immediate action.’

NCAT can also suspend a practitioner’s registration for a fixed period of time, following a finding of professional misconduct.

Cancellation

NCAT can cancel a practitioner’s registration, following a finding of professional misconduct. You can read more about tribunal decisions.

Monitoring

Councils always monitor a practitioner’s compliance with any restrictions that have been imposed on their registration. You can read more about what councils do and how they do this.