Procedure for Complaint Handling
Health & Community Services Complaints Commissioner
The Complaints Advisory Committee
Formal Proceedings (pdf document)
Obligation to Report Incapacity
Impaired practice by an unwell pharmacist
The Complaints Advisory Committee as the investigatory body handles any matter which involves investigation. The Board should not participate in this process. Where a person complained against is being interviewed, the process should be taped, statutory warnings given and counsel may be present.
The Registrar will interview complainants or potential witnesses on behalf of the Committee. Board members on the CAC should not take part in interviews of this nature.
The CAC should make recommendations to the Board in a standard form, and the Board may either accept, or refer the matter back to the CAC either for further consideration and/or investigation, or to seek legal advice. The Board should not discuss the case at all (formally or informally).
Where the CAC recommends a Section 44 inquiry, it should be heard by remaining Board members eligible and deputy members may be used to replace Board members on the CAC or those who have withdrawn (because of prior knowledge or other conflict of interest).
Similarly, where the CAC recommends that the Board interview a pharmacist for conciliation purposes, remaining Board members may take part, although the Complaints Advisory Committee would normally conduct the interview.
When the Board has a discussion with a pharmacist for conciliation purposes, no formal inquiry may then take place on that particular complaint.
If conciliation is recommended, the Board should notify the pharmacist that a Section 44 inquiry is not contemplated, but that it wishes to discuss the circumstances so that no misunderstanding occurs.
The report by the CAC to the Board should contain the names of persons involved, the actual complaint and the recommendation to the Board. If at any stage, Board minutes are obtained under Freedom of Information or are shown to persons other than Board members, the names of all persons involved should be erased.
Two Board members should be rostered to serve on the CAC for a period of at least six months.
The tapes of all interviews should be kept until the matter has been concluded, and for a month after (in case of appeal), and then erased.
It is not necessary for the Board's solicitor to prosecute in every inquiry. This can be resolved by discussion between the Registrar and the legal adviser.