HealthInfo West Coast-Te Tai Poutini

Your health rights

 

Everyone using a health or disability service in New Zealand has the legal protection of a Code of Rights. An independent commissioner promotes and protects these rights.

If you are concerned about the service you have received from any health provider, you should first go back to that provider – or their employer – if you feel able to do so. Most healthcare providers want to know when someone is unhappy, and what they are unhappy with, so they can sort out any problems and stop them from happening again.

Every healthcare organisation should have a formal complaints procedure, so ask about how you can make a complaint and what the process will be.

If you have used the health provider's complaints procedure and are still not satisfied, the links below give advice about what to do next.

  HealthInfo recommends the following pages

General

• Health and Disability Commissioner

  The pamphlet is available in over 40 languages, including Māori, Samoan, Tongan, Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, and Japanese.

Making a complaint

• Health and Disability Commissioner – Making a complaint

  How to make a complaint about a health or disability provider.

• Health and Disability Commissioner – Self advocacy

  This page has information about making your own complaint, with links to finding an advocate and health and disability advocacy in general.

Mental health

• Code of family rights

  Leaflet explaining the rights of family members of a person with major mental illness, written by Supporting Families in Mental Illness (PDF).

• Guide to the Mental Health Act

  For the families and whānau of someone receiving compulsory treatment (PDF).

• Guidelines to the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act

  Download Ministry of Health guidelines, in either Word or PDF format.

• Making Complaints – a guide for mental health service users

  A plain English guide from the Human Rights Commission, available as a PDF or Word document.

Privacy

• Your privacy

  The Privacy Commissioner brings together guides, factsheets, case notes and other resources on health privacy.

Youth

• Youth Law – Health & wellbeing

  Information about what free medical services children and young people in New Zealand can access.

Written by HealthInfo clinical advisers. Last reviewed January 2016.

Page reference: 53782

Review key: HIYHI-77571