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RACS leadership
RACS complaints process updated Supportive, confidential, respectful, and non-judgmental – these are the words that best describe our new and enhanced 2021 complaints process. As an organisation that furthers the interests of our members by supporting their ongoing development and maintenance of expertise, the College is in a unique position when it comes to dealing with enquiries regarding incidents and reports of poor conduct and inappropriate behaviour. We want to make sure that your concerns and complaints are heard and addressed. Our position as a member organisation does not provide us with the powers that a hospital that employs surgeons has, or that a regulator such as the
Medical Council of New Zealand (MCNZ) or the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) holds. We simply do not have the legal powers, nor the resources, to effectively and efficiently investigate complaints, other than involving our own employees. We do not control the workplace of the complainant, respondent, or witnesses, and cannot conduct a sound, defensible, prompt fact-finding investigation. Our attempts to do so in the past have created legal challenges and have resulted in the complainants being confused and dissatisfied with the process and outcome. This inevitably led to some losing trust in the College. We have taken steps to revise our
approach. We learned from the way we used to address complaints and have developed a process that supports professionalism in surgery and ensures all complaints and concerns are handled by the agency best placed to manage them. Our new complaints framework balances our: • duty of care to our Trainees, Specialist International Medical Graduates (SIMGs) and surgeons to provide a safe environment • responsibility to provide a procedurally fair and timely process • professional commitment to build a culture of respect
