The Office of the Health Ombudsman (OHO) has experienced continued growth in activity across its operations during the 2025–2026 financial year, with a 14 per cent increase in the number of health service complaints received (11,202) compared with the previous year (9,810 complaints).

Ms Janet Anderson PSM, who succeeded Dr Lynne Coulson Barr OAM as Queensland’s Health Ombudsman in January 2026, said key achievements for the year had strengthened the organisation’s ability to protect public health and safety. There had been a particular focus on lifting performance in a number of areas, improving the experience of those interacting with the OHO, and engaging with health services with the aim of encouraging their effective management of risk.

“The continued growth in complaints received by the OHO has reinforced the importance of managing matters effectively and in a timely way,” Ms Anderson said.

“In response, we have pursued opportunities to streamline business processes and improve efficiency while maintaining the quality and integrity of our work,” she said.

This resulted in a record number of investigations (277) being finalised in 2025–2026. Around two-thirds of these completed investigations had been underway for more than 12 months.

“Focusing on finalising these longer-running investigations has assisted in restoring organisational capacity, allowing resources to be allocated towards the timely handling of new investigations,” Ms Anderson said.

Another consequence of this effort was that a record number of registered practitioner matters were referred to the OHO’s Director of Proceedings for consideration of relevant action. This in turn resulted in an increase in disciplinary matters being filed with the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (64 compared with 42 in 2024–2025).

These matters related to poor clinical performance; inappropriate prescribing and/or dispensing of medication; unlawful self-administration of medications; boundary violations between the practitioner and the consumer/patient; sexual harassment; and/or criminal convictions for conduct related to, and outside of, the practise of the profession.

The Health Ombudsman issued 35 prohibition orders against non-registered health practitioners in 2025–2026, imposing restrictions on these practitioners either permanently or for a stated period.

Prohibition orders are published on the OHO’s public register to support transparency and protect public health and safety, as non-registered health practitioners are not registered or regulated by a National Board.

In 2025–2026, the OHO also reported:

• As at 30 June 2026, 330 practitioners were being monitored for compliance with immediate actions and prohibition orders.
• There were 12 systemic investigations commenced to determine whether issues relating to the operation of a system, process or practice may impact the provision or quality of health services.
• A total of 9 de-identified ‘snapshot reports’ detailing the findings and learnings discovered through investigation processes were published to promote broader application across the health sector.
• Health professions that accounted for the highest percentage of complaints received were medical practitioners (59 per cent), nurses (17 per cent) and psychologists (8 per cent).
• Health service organisations that accounted for the highest percentage of complaints received were public hospitals (34 per cent), correctional facilities (22 per cent) and medical centres (11 per cent).

View a full copy of the OHO’s Annual Report 2025–2026 (PDF 5.5MB)