Complaints
Our commitment
We're committed to delivering high quality services and welcome your feedback about how we're doing.
If you have a complaint, we want to hear from you so we can continually improve our products and services.
Our Complaint Management Policy (PDF) allows us to support, enable and promote management of complaints in a fair, transparent, and timely manner and is designed to:
- make it easy for members to make a complaint
- enable the RACP to assess and respond to complaints in a fair and timely manner
- help us analyse complaints to identify and implement improvements to our products, services and processes
Complaints process
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Please note: complaints of a more complex and/or serious nature may take longer to resolve. In such cases, the College will provide regular updates to the complainant on its progress.
What we do with your complaint
- We log your complaint in our Customer Relationship Management system (CRM).
- We send you an email acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 5 business days and provide you with a case number.
- We manage your complaint in a transparent, timely, and fair manner.
- Wherever possible, we aim to resolve your complaint at first contact.
- If we're unable to resolve your complaint during the first contact, we aim to resolve all complaints within 30 days and will keep you informed of our progress. For more complex or serious complaints that may take longer to resolve, we'll provide regular updates on the status of your complaint.
- Once we've resolved your complaint, we'll notify you of the outcome in writing and provide details of:
- the actions we took
- the reasoning behind our decision
- any remedies that will be or have been implemented
- options for review, where applicable
Your rights and responsibilities
You have the right to:
- an apology for valid complaints
- regular updates on the progress of your complaint
- use alternative channels outside of the RACP to make your complaint
You have a responsibility to:
- raise any complaints as soon as possible
- provide relevant information to help us resolve your complaint
- not make malicious complaints
RACP employees and members are expected to be respectful and polite when handling complaints. If a person making a complaint behaves in a threatening or harassing manner toward any RACP employee, the RACP may stop investigating the complaint.
Other Policies, By-laws and the Code of Conduct
The College may decide that your complaint is better handled under a different College policy, By-law or the Code of Conduct.
If this is the case, we'll log your complaint and will notify you in writing, outlining the next steps of the process.
Code of Conduct
The Code of Conduct applies to all directors and members of the College. It doesn't apply to employees or contractors of the College.
It sets the expected standards for membership of, and work at, the College including behaviour:
- during College activities, including meetings of College bodies and dealing with other members, employees, trainees and other stakeholders
- at College related events, including social events
View the RACP Code of Conduct (PDF)
Working Together Policy
The Working Together Policy covers:
- fair treatment of all employees, job applicants, Fellows, trainees, OTPs and training applicants
- harassment or bullying of employees or members by employees or members
See the Working Together Policy (PDF)
Reconsideration Review and Appeals Process By-law
This By-law provides an internal process for the reassessment of specified decisions made by College bodies and a process to appeal termination of membership decisions. The 3 stages of the College’s internal process for the reassessment of specified decisions are:
- (a) Reconsideration – by the same College body that made the decision
- (b) Review – by the College body that oversees the College body that made the decision
- (c) Appeal – to an Appeals Committee appointed by the Board
Read the Reconsideration Review and Appeals By-law (PDF)
RACP Privacy Policy
This policy relates to any act or practice of the RACP in relation to the individual’s personal information held by the College.
See the RACP’s Privacy Policy (PDF)
Whistleblower Policy
If you wish to disclose or report conduct that is deemed misconduct or an improper state of affairs, you should review the College’s Whistleblower Policy to first see if it's more appropriate to raise your matter via that process.
Whistleblowers are eligible for protections when they make Protected Disclosures under the Corporations Act. If you're making a Protected Disclosure, the College won't reveal your identity or the contents of your report to others unless you consent to us doing so, or we're required or authorised by law to do so.
The RACP has also engaged the services of “Fair-Call” an independent and external service which is authorised to receive whistleblowing reports in relation to the College. For further details on how to lodge a report, see the RACP Fair-Call website.
See the Whistleblower Policy (PDF)
Potential Breach of an Accredited Setting
An accredited setting is a health service, like a hospital, accredited to coordinate and deliver work-based training for our training programs.
This process can relate to (but isn't limited to):
- bullying and harassment
-
discrimination
-
changes to supervision that may affect training
-
rostering changes that may affect training opportunities
- any incident or circumstance which could impact the training provider’s integrity or capacity to deliver service and/or training programs
Find out more on how to report a potential breach of an Accredited Training Setting.
Complaints not handled by the College
The RACP may determine that your complaint can't be handled by the College or is better suited to an external agency.
The RACP doesn't investigate complaints relating to:
- Workforce and employment-related issues, excluding training matters relating to RACP education and training
- physician clinical practice healthcare services
The table below shows external organisations that you can approach for complaints not handled by the RACP.
| Aotearoa New Zealand |
| Organisation |
Complaints Handled |
| Medical Council of New Zealand |
Conduct and competence concerns of a registered doctor or health concerns about a doctor. |
| Employment New Zealand |
Work health and safety complaints, including bullying, discrimination or harassment. |
| Ombudsman New Zealand |
Decisions or conduct of government bodies and officials, including matters related to health and disability services. |
| Human Rights Commission |
Sexual and racial harassment and other forms of discrimination. |