A deidentified report on the formal complaints received and handled by the College is made publicly available annually.

Review of complaints received and handled by the College

Pursuant to cl. 3.3.2 of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG/College) Complaints Policy, a deidentified report on the formal complaints received and handled by the College is made publicly available annually.

The review conducted by the Independent External Reviewer (IER) covered:

• The number and nature of complaints
• Findings in relation to the complaint handling and resolution process
• Recommendations for future improvement

Primary findings and recommendations

Last year, complaints lodged from January 2022 to June 2023 were reviewed, and the primary findings and recommendations include:

• • There was a total of 19 complaints lodged in this period;
  • The majority of complaints related to allegations of bullying and related issues like unfair treatment;
  • On the whole, the College handles complaints efficiently, and in a timely and careful manner;
  • The IER following review gave 10 recommendations for continuous improvement, including:
    • that complaint files are best assigned to a complaint handling officer;
    • that an assessment and/or investigation report should be conducted and prepared for every complaint;
    • that the complaint handler must ensure that every issue raised in a complaint is properly assessed; and
    • to help manage complainant expectations, that the College should consider setting out expressly its investigation limitations and state its preference for hospitals/ external regulatory bodies conducting investigations at first instance.

You can access the full report containing all findings and recommendations below.

Review of complaint management policies and procedures

The IER also conducted a review on the College’s complaint management policies and procedures. The major findings of the review include:

• that the College complies with the AS/NZS ISO 10002:2018 Guidelines for Complaint Management in Organisations (Standards);
• that the College should set up a dedicated page on the College’s website explaining the College’s complaint handling system, policies and procedures, and to provide a place for submitting a complaint;
• that publishing factors relevant to the CEO and President’s determination of outcomes (for example, whether to refer a matter to AHPRA) is advisable in the interests of greater transparency;
• that the College should clearly set out its position on unreasonable conduct by complainants; and
• that the false, frivolous and vexatious complaints section should be reviewed and updated.

You can access the full report on the complaint management policies and procedures reviews below.