Script 423 gives information only, not legal advice. If you have a legal problem or need legal advice, you should speak to a lawyer. For the name of a lawyer to consult, call Lawyer Referral at 604.687.3221 in the lower mainland or 1.800.663.1919 elsewhere in British Columbia.

If you have a complaint with your doctor, you have four options:

1. Talk to your doctor to try to solve the problem. If this doesn’t work, or if the problem is too serious for this, consider the next three options.
2. Complain to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC. The College is the organization that licenses all BC doctors. The College protects the public by setting standards for doctors and by monitoring, evaluating, and disciplining them.
3. See a lawyer or the police for advice – if you think the doctor has broken a criminal law.
4. See a lawyer for advice about suing the doctor – refer to script 420, called “Medical Malpractice”.

Even if you complain to the College, you can still take the other legal actions against the doctor, described in items 3 and 4 – seeing a lawyer or the police, or both. In fact, if you feel the doctor has harmed you and you want compensation, you have to start legal action (item 4). If you have a complaint against a doctor while you’re in the hospital, you can also go to the head of the division or the hospital’s medical director, who will follow the hospital’s complaints process.

In addition, in 2008, the Patient Care Quality Review Board was established in BC as an additional hospital-complaints process.  For more information, phone 1-866-952-2448, or visit the website at www.patientcarequalityreviewboard.ca.

If you decide to complain to the College, there are two types of complaints: general and concerns of an intimate or sexual nature.

General complaints to the College against a doctor
To make a general complaint to the College, you must do 3 things:

1. Complete and submit a Complaint Form, available on the College’s website.

2. Put your complaint in writing. Include:

• your name, address, and telephone number so that the College can contact you.
• the name and address of your doctor.
• the facts of what happened to you.
• your permission to send a copy of your complaint to the doctor for their response.

3. Send your written complaint to:
    The Registrar
    College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC
    300 - 669 Howe Street
    Vancouver BC V6C 0B4

For more information, call the College at 604.733.7758 in Vancouver and 1.800.461.3008 elsewhere in BC. Or visit its website at www.cpsbc.ca.

What does the College do with your complaint?
A Deputy Registrar, who is a doctor, looks at your complaint and then deals with it directly or sends it to a committee. The two main committees are:

• the Ethical Standards and Conduct Review Committee, which deals with ethical complaints
• the Quality of Medical Performance Committee, which deals with complaints about medical treatment

Both committees consist of senior doctors and members of the public. The committees review and discuss all the written information in your complaint. They may also interview you, the doctor, other doctors involved in your case, and experts in the area. Then they can do any of the following four things:

1. Recommend that the doctor change their practice or conduct.
2. Ask the College to tell the whole medical profession – through its formal publications – about the committee’s views on the complaint (without identifying you or the doctor).
3. Send the complaint to the College Executive Committee for further action.
4. Decide the complaint isn’t supported by the information available and tell you why.

If you disagree with the decision of either committee, you can ask it to reconsider.

The College has a third committee called the Preliminary Review Committee. If your complaint is about serious inappropriate conduct by a doctor, the College Executive Committee may send your complaint to this committee. This committee reviews all the information and then decides what to do. It may take no action – if the complaint is not supported. Or it may ask the College to charge the doctor with misconduct and hold an inquiry. If you disagree with the decision of the Preliminary Review Committee, you have 30 days to ask it to reconsider.

If you are not satisfied with the College’s decision regarding your complaint, you may apply to the Health Professions Review Board for a review of the decision.  You must deliver your application to the Review Board within 30 days of receiving the decision letter from the College.  If you apply after 30 days, then you must also apply for an extension of time to file your application, explaining the special circumstances that caused you to miss the deadline.  The Review Board can be reached at (250) 953-4956 or toll-free within BC at 1-888-953-4986; or you may visit the website at www.hprb.gov.bc.ca. 

Inquiries
An inquiry is a hearing held by the College Council, like a court trial, with lawyers for the doctor and the College, a court reporter, and witnesses. But instead of a judge, there’s an impartial panel of four people: two senior doctors, a lawyer, and a member of the public. You tell the panel under oath (or testify about) what happened to you. The doctor and other witnesses may also testify. The panel then decides if you have proven your case against the doctor. If you have, the College Council may do any or all of the following four things:

1. Reprimand the doctor.
2. Fine the doctor up to $25,000.
3. Suspend the doctor’s licence so they can’t practice medicine for a certain time.
4. Put conditions on the doctor to control how the doctor may practice medicine.

In very serious cases, the College Council may cancel the doctor’s licence to practice medicine. Doctors can appeal a Council decision to the BC Supreme Court. If you disagree with the Council’s decision, you may want to get legal advice about your options.

Inquiries are open to the public and the media, but the panel may close part of a hearing involving sensitive issues. Very few complaints go as far as an inquiry.

The College Council can’t order a doctor to pay you financial compensation. Only a court can do that. Nor can the College pay you.

Sexual misconduct complaints to the College against a doctor
The College has a special procedure for complaints of sexual misconduct by a doctor. Phone the College right away at 604.733.7758 in Vancouver or 1.800.461.3008 elsewhere in BC. If you make this type of complaint, the Registrar, Deputy Registrar, or an investigator may interview you. You can bring along a friend, relative, or other person for support. All sexual misconduct complaints go to the Sexual Misconduct Review Committee, made up of three people: one member of the public and two senior doctors. This committee can do any of the following five things:

1. Ask the College to investigate further.
2. Ask the Special Deputy Registrar to try to resolve your complaint informally.
3. Refer your complaint to a different committee responsible for reviewing the ethics, competence, or conduct of the doctor.
4. Ask the College Executive Committee to charge the doctor with misconduct and hold an inquiry.
5. Decide that nothing further should be done and explain why.

If you disagree with the decision of the Sexual Misconduct Review Committee, you have 30 days to ask it to reconsider. You may also want to get legal advice in this case.

[updated April 2010]

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