29 November 2024
Ms Lauren Doocy
By email: [FYI request #29029 email]
Tēnā koe Ms Doocy
Re:
Information request
Our ref:
E24HDC01474/NRO
Thank you for your email
of
2 November 2024 requesting information relating to
HDC’s processes and policies and information about how complaints can be made
against HDC.
We have considered your request under the Official Information Act 1982 and the
Privacy Act 2020. Please find
below the questions you have asked and our response.
Please outline the process that HDC will fol ow to ensure that an independent review
of the situation is undertaken and consideration is made as to whether HDC
breached the HDC Code of Rights.
Unfortunately, due to an administrative error by a receiving staff member, an email
was misfiled. This email should have been forwarded directly to the Medical Council
of New Zealand (MCNZ) who are best placed to consider concerns about a doctor’s
conduct. This email has now been sent to MCNZ.
Please be assured that since the time of Ms Madison’s complaint, HDC has introduced
key process and systems changes around how messages to our mailbox are received
and triaged and we are confident this has significantly reduced the likelihood of this
kind of error occurring now and in the future.
HDC has undertaken an audit of our emails from this time frame to ensure that no
other emails were similarly missed.
The Code of Health and Disability Services Consumer’s Rights (the Code), establishes
the rights of people using health and disability services and places obligations and
duties on providers of health and disability services to comply with the Code. HDC’s
role is to promote and protect people’s rights as set out in the Code, including by
assessing and resolving complaints about the quality of care provided by health and
disability services.
Auckland Office: P O Box 1791 Auckland 1140; Wel ington Office: PO Box 245, Wel ington 6140
Freephone: 0800 11 22 33; Email: [Health and Disability Commissioner request email]; Website: www.hdc.org.nz
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HDC is an independent Crown entity – independent of Government and service
provision. It is important to note that HDC is not a provider of health and disability
support services and therefore is not subject to the Code.
Outline how often HDC has concerns raised which is subsequently identified through
other means, that HDC has breached the consumer’s rights.
HDC is not subject to the Code of Rights. Therefore, we refuse this aspect of your
request pursuant to section 18(e) of the Official Information Act, as the information
requested does not exist. However, the following information may be of use.
HDC has a closed file review process where complainants/providers can raise
procedural concerns about HDC’s assessment of their complaint and/or new
information. This review process can result in HDC gathering/receiving further
information and re-considering the decision made.
Where other concerns are raised about HDC’s processes and actions, these concerns
are assessed by HDC and, where needed, changes are made to our processes. HDC
also regularly conducts complainant and provider experience surveys to assist us to
improve our complaints process. These surveys are shared with the Commissioner and
the Executive Leadership Team, and are fed into our quality improvement work.
Individuals can also raise concerns with the Office of the Ombudsman who can look
into complaints about HDC where they deem it appropriate.
Identify the process undertaken by HDC to determine which of these cases is made
public in its online decisions.
We have interpreted this part of your question as relating to cases in which HDC has
been found in breach of consumer’s rights. As noted in our answer to the question
above, HDC is not subject to the Code of Rights. Therefore, we refuse this aspect of
your request pursuant to section 18(e) of the Official Information Act, as the
information requested does not exist. I hope that you find the following information
of assistance.
Under section 14(1)(d) of the HDC Act, a function of HDC is to make public statements
and publish reports in relation to matters affecting the rights of health consumers or
disability consumers. The purpose of this is educative – to promote people’s
understanding of the Code. HDC therefore publishes investigation reports on our
website where we have found a provider in breach of the Code.
HDC does not generally publicise decisions where we have not found a provider in
breach of the Code unless we consider there would be significant educative value in
making the decision public.
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Outline the HDC's claims processes and how it reimburses people who have raised
concerns that it does not appropriately investigate, but then through utilisation of
its own funding, identify that a breach has indeed occurred, or some other important
matter was raised.
HDC does not have the power to compensate or reimburse people, therefore, we
refuse this aspect of your request pursuant to section 18(e) of the Official Information
Act, as the information requested does not exist.
Determine what international standards or external audit bodies review HDC's
approach and provide a copy of these. Release all relevant internal audit reports
from the past five years.
HDC is audited each year by Audit NZ and their reports can be found in our Annual
Reports on our website
here.
People have the right to complain to the Ombudsman if they are unhappy with HDC
decisions or processes.
Lastly, HDC has now moved away from directly answering its phones and is very
restrictive in terms of consumer and provider contact. Often HDC responses do not
include identifiable details from HDC workers. Provide the SOPs that underlie this
approach, any advice HDC has received as to whether this approach is lawful, and
HDCs assessment of the impact on consumers, providers and its own workers.
HDC does not have a policy, SOP or legal advice about identifying HDC staff in
telephone calls or in correspondence. Therefore, we refuse this aspect of your request
pursuant to section 18(e) of the Official Information Act, as the information requested
does not exist. I hope that you find the following information of assistance.
Where a complaint is under assessment by HDC, emails will generally be sent from an
individual staff member’s mailbox and include identifying details. However, HDC has
recently streamlined our early resolution process (e.g. where we are referring a
complaint to a provider or to the Advocacy Service) to make this process faster and
free up staff time to work on older complaints. This includes emails being sent from a
generic mailbox, but with the sender’s details contained in the sign-off in the email.
HDC also has a main mailbox where new complaints as well as other correspondence
is received. From time to time, HDC staff will respond to enquiries directly out of this
generic mailbox, but with their details included in the sign-off in the email.
People can access HDC via our website, via email and by phone on our National
Freephone. Information about how to contact HDC is located
here.
HDC’s 0800 line is staffed by the Advocacy Service. The Advocacy Service is contracted
by HDC to assist people to resolve their concerns, and advocates are extremely
knowledgeable about the Code and people’s resolution options. While calls directed
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to the 0800 line are answered by the advocacy service, callers have the option of
requesting a callback from an HDC staff member - and these calls are returned within
3 working days.
The process outlining how the 0800 line is operated is shown in the appendix to this
letter.
HDC closely monitors complainant and provider feedback on changes to our process,
including via our experience surveys.
We thank you for your feedback which we will take into consideration.
You may seek a review of this decision from the Office of the Ombudsman or the
Privacy Commissioner.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Jane King
Associate Commissioner Legal
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Appendix A
HDC’s 0800 number
Advocacy Phone Message Process
Advocacy will take
all calls relating to HDC as agents of HDC:
1.
New complaints: Advocacy should manage through existing processes –
no calls
about making a complaint should be sent to HDC.
2.
Existing HDC complaints: Advocacy should gather details from the caller about why
they are calling (e.g. whether they are generally looking for an update, or have
specific questions or information to share). This should then be emailed along with
the caller’s name and contact number to
[email address], with the HDC
complaint number clearly marked in the subject line.
a. If the caller does not know their complaint number, the consumer’s name
should be used instead.
3.
General enquiries: Enquiries should be managed by Advocacy wherever possible.
a. If the enquiry is unable to answered by Advocacy, caller should be directed
to email
[Health and Disability Commissioner request email]
4.
Wanting to make a complaint about HDC: Caller directed to either email
[Health and Disability Commissioner request email] (including their complaint number, if applicable), or alternatively go
to the Ombudsman. If caller is unable to email, Advocacy is to take their name and
contact details and email [email address]
5.
Trying to contact HDC staff member: Advocacy to take a message with name and
contact information, and send this through t
o [email address].
Each call note should be sent through to HDC separately, ideally soon after the call is
received.
Advocacy can inform callers that HDC will return this call within 3 working days.
