If you have a concern or complaint that you have not been able to resolve by talking with your service provider, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (the Commission) can help you to resolve your concern or complaint.
Learn more about how you can Lodge a complaint by phone (1800 951 822), in writing or online below.
What we can do
We can help you with concerns and complaints about a service provider’s responsibilities under the Aged Care Act 1997 or under their funding agreement with the Commonwealth. Types of concerns we can assist with include:
- health care, for example wound care, medication and care assessment
- personal care assistance, for example showering, dispensing medication, feeding and mobility
- communication, for example how information is shared with you and how your questions are responded to, including complaints
- staff roles, for example how they do their job and provide care
- living environment, for example safety, security, and cleaning
- some fees and charges in care agreements
- choice and preferences, for example showering and meal arrangements and tailored activities.
We treat each concern or complaint on its own merits and we will carefully assess the information we receive and obtain.
We will listen to you and ask you questions about your concern to help us understand the issues and your expectations. We will let you know if your concern or complaint is an issue that we can help you with.
We can select one or more approaches to resolve the complaint you raise: either service provider resolution, conciliation, mediation or investigation. More information about these approaches can be found in our Resolving concerns about aged care fact sheet.
What we cannot do
There are some things we are unable to do:
- take complaints about your MyAgedCare experience. See MyAgedCare
- take complaints about your support experience (RAS). See MyAgedCare
- take complaints about your comprehensive assessment (ACAT). See MyAgedCare
- provide advice on the availability of care or services in your local area. See MyAgedCare
- provide advice on who should make financial, legal or health decisions on behalf of a person
- comment on industrial matters such as wages or employment conditions
- ask service providers to terminate someone’s employment
- provide legal advice or what to include in your care agreement
- provide clinical advice about what treatment a person should be receiving
- investigate the cause of death (this is the role of the coroner)
- determine whether or not a specific event occurred (especially if we receive conflicting accounts of the event).
If we can’t help you, we can refer complaints to other organisations that may be able to address the issue you raised. For example, the Department of Health and Aged Care, professional registration boards or other complaints bodies.
Making a complaint about food, nutrition or dining
The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has established a dedicated Food, Nutrition and Dining Hotline to receive questions, concerns and complaints about food, nutrition and dining in aged care.
The hotline can be reached via 1800 844 044, 9am to 5pm AEST, Monday to Friday. Alternatively, you can lodge any complaint via the Commission’s online form.
A fact sheet for providers and for people receiving aged care services are available to provide further information.
It’s ok to make a complaint
If you have a concern about the care you or someone else is receiving, it is important that you talk about it.
Complaints are important because they can help service providers improve the quality of care and services they provide to you or your loved one. Your complaint can help other people too.
Making a complaint is not ‘being difficult.' Most aged care providers do their best to provide quality care and services for older Australians. However, issues can occur so we need to ensure that people can raise their concerns in a constructive and safe way.
If you feel comfortable, we encourage you to raise your concern with the staff or managers of the service first, as this is often the best way to have your concern resolved. All service providers are required to have a complaints system in place. In most cases, you will be able to resolve your concern with them.
If this doesn’t work or you don’t feel comfortable, we can support you to resolve your concern with the service provider.
We provide a free service for anyone to raise a concern or make a complaint about the quality of care or services provided to people receiving Australian Government funded aged care. This may be aged care services people are receiving for help in their home or in an aged care home, including:
- Residential aged care services, including permanent care and respite care
- Home Care Packages delivered on a Consumer Directed Care basis
- Flexible care where a person is receiving 'residential care' or 'home care'; this includes services provided through transition care, innovative care or multi-purpose services (MPS)
- Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP), and
- National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Programme.
Learn more about how you can Lodge a complaint by phone, in writing or online below.
How to make an effective complaint
If you have a concern, a few things help to make your complaint more effective and easier to resolve. We have put together some tips for how to make an effective complaint.
The complaints process
The complaints process page provides an overview of what happens when a complaint is lodged with us.
Services available to help you to make a complaint
Sometimes making a complaint on your own can be difficult. There are several options for support to make a complaint. If you raise a concern on behalf of someone else it is important that the person (or his or her representative) knows about it.
Referrals to other organisations we work with
If you lodge a complaint with us and we can't help you, we will try to identify someone who can assist you. We may need to refer some issues to other organisations to ensure that your concerns are handled correctly, by the people best placed to deal with them.