Health and Disability Commissioner Act 1994, ss 43–49
If the Commissioner finds that your rights under the Health and Disability Code have been breached, they can do one or more of the following things:
Recommend how to fix the problem – The Commissioner can make recommendations to the health or disability service about what they should do about the complaint. This could include apologising to you in writing, reimbursing you for costs, having some training in specific areas, and reviewing and changing how they do things.
Report to professional bodies or other officials – The Commissioner can report their opinion, with any recommendations, to the appropriate professional body (for example the NZ Medical Council if the complaint is about a doctor, or to ACC, or to the Minister of Health, or to anyone else the Commissioner thinks should hear about this – like the Director-General of Health).
Complain to the individual’s professional body – The Commissioner can formally complain to the appropriate professional body, or help you do this if you want to.
Direct it to the Human Rights Review Tribunal – In a very small number of cases, the Commissioner will pass on your complaint to an independent prosecutor called the “Director of Proceedings”, who can then take the complaint to the Human Rights Review Tribunal or to the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal.