Making a complaint about healthcare

Before you make a complaint about healthcare, you should look at the Making a complaint section on our homepage. It has information about:

• Preparing for a complaint
• Making an internal complaint (to someone at your prison)
• Making a complaint to Corrections Victoria
• Making complaints to external complaint bodies

Internal complaints about healthcare

You can make a complaint about healthcare to these people in your prison:

• Unit Manager
• Health Services Manager
• General Manager

Important: If you make a complaint to someone working at your prison, you should make it in writing and keep a copy of any response you get.

You can also make a complaint to:

• Corrections Victoria
• Justice Health

External complaint bodies

If you don’t get a response from your prison, Corrections Victoria or Justice Health, or you’re not happy with the response you get, you can complain to an external complaint body. There are different external complaint bodies depending on who you want to complain about.

If you have a complaint about healthcare that relates to prison staff, you can complain to the Victorian Ombudsman.

If you have a complaint about healthcare that relates to medical staff (like doctors or nurses) that work at your prison, you can complain to the Health Complaints Commissioner.

If you have a complaint about mental health staff (like psychiatrists or counsellors) that work at your prison, you can complain to the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commissioner.

Calls and mail to these organisations are free and confidential.

When you make a complaint to an external body, it’s helpful to have a copy of your written complaint to the prison and the response you got.

For more information on how to make a complaint to each of these people or external bodies, see the Making a complaint section on the home page.