Regulatory colleges are responsible for ensuring that B.C.’s regulated health professionals serve the public by providing qualified, safe, and ethical care. As part of this role, colleges receive and investigate complaints from the public and other health care providers.

Colleges have the power to issue limited types of disciplinary action for administrative matters, and the ability to resolve less serious issues by making agreements with health professionals..

When a health professional has committed misconduct, sexual misconduct, sexual abuse, or discrimination, disciplinary action is determined by an independent Health Professions Discipline Tribunal (Discipline Tribunal), which oversees the discipline process for regulated health professions in B.C. The Discipline Tribunal is led under the Health Professions and Occupations Regulatory Oversight Office (HPOROO). Once the disciplinary panel has determined disciplinary action, they make a disciplinary order, which regulatory colleges are responsible for enforcing.

More information about the Discipline Tribunal can be found on the HPOROO website.

 

Do you have a complaint about a regulated health-care professional?

If you are concerned about the conduct of a health-care professional, you can take the following steps:

  1. First, consider talking the problem over with them; difficulties often result from misunderstanding or poor communications.
  2. If you are still not satisfied, and the professional works for an agency such as a hospital, consider speaking to the person in charge at the agency.
  3. If there is no agency involved or if it cannot help with your problem, confirm that the professional is licensed with a regulatory college and listed on that college’s public register. Then, find out further information from the college. By reading the college’s website or contacting the college, you can learn about the standards you can expect in the delivery of care and what can be done if they are not met.

See the “Making a Complaint” section below if you want to make a complaint to a health regulatory college about a licensee.

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What a regulatory college can do if you submit a complaint

After a regulatory college receives a complaint about one of its licensees, the complaint process is launched. Colleges can only investigate complaints that fall within their statutory mandate.

Colleges have the power to issue limited types of disciplinary action for administrative matters, and the ability to resolve less serious issues by making agreements with health professionals..

When a health professional has committed misconduct, sexual misconduct, sexual abuse, or discrimination, disciplinary action is determined by an independent Health Professions Discipline Tribunal (Discipline Tribunal), which oversees the discipline process for regulated health professions in B.C. The Discipline Tribunal is led under the Health Professions and Occupations Regulatory Oversight Office (HPOROO). Once the disciplinary panel has determined disciplinary action, they make a disciplinary order, which regulatory colleges are responsible for enforcing.

More information about the Discipline Tribunal can be found on the HPOROO website.

What the regulatory college cannot do

A college does not have the authority to:

  • Order compensation for any harm that may have been done;
  • Address business disputes between registrants; nor
  • Direct how an agency supervises or disciplines a professional employed by it.

Making a complaint

If you want to make a formal complaint about a regulated health professional, contact the regulatory college to which the health professional is licensed. You may be able to submit a complaint on the college’s website. You may be asked to put your complaint in writing and give the name of the professional, where he or she works, details of the specific actions being complained about, and provide any available support documents.

Here is a list of links to the website’s for each of B.C.’s six health regulatory colleges where you can find more information about making a complaint:

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Health Professions Review Board

The Health Professions Review Board (HPRB) is an administrative tribunal created under the Health Professions and Occupations Act that is independent from the health professions colleges, government, and courts. A complainant who is not satisfied how a complaint was handled by a college can make a request for a review by HPRB.