Health Ombudsman Act 2013

The Health Ombudsman Act 2013 (the Act) is the governing legislation for the Office of the Health Ombudsman and identifies the key objectives of the office:

• protecting the health and safety of the public
• promoting professional, safe and competent practice by health practitioners
• promoting high standards of service delivery by health service organisations
• maintaining public confidence in the management of complaints and other matters relating to the provision of health services.

The primary focus of the Act is to establish a transparent, accountable and fair system for effectively and expeditiously dealing with complaints and other matters relating to the provision of health services in Queensland.

The Act replaced the previous Health Quality and Complaints Commission Act 2006 on 1 July 2014.

Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act 2009

The establishment of the Health Ombudsman Act 2013 also saw amendments made to the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (Queensland) (the National Law). As a result, Queensland is now a co-regulatory jurisdiction in relation to the National Law. This will not affect the national registration of health practitioners, but enables Queensland to vary how Part 8 of the National Law (Health, Performance and Conduct) applies in Queensland and the disciplinary arrangements for registered health practitioners.