Health and Disability Services Complaints Office (WA)
A short factsheet on HaDSCO: the independent statutory authority resolving complaints about health, disability and mental health services in Western Australia.
Learning outcomes
- State HaDSCO's establishing Act and the sectors its complaints jurisdiction covers.
- Explain that HaDSCO resolves complaints by investigation and conciliation rather than adjudication or prosecution.
- Distinguish HaDSCO's sector-specific complaints role from the WA Ombudsman's general administration complaints role.
Act: Health and Disability Services (Complaints) Act 1995 (WA).1
Established: Under the 1995 Act; the office has operated under the current HaDSCO name since 2010.
Purpose: HaDSCO is an independent statutory authority providing an accessible, impartial complaint-resolution service for complaints about health, disability and mental health services in Western Australia and the Indian Ocean Territories.
Powers conferred under the Act
The Act empowers HaDSCO to receive, investigate and resolve complaints about health and disability service providers, and to undertake related education and data-collection functions. Its typical process is investigation followed by conciliation between the complainant and the provider, rather than a formal hearing or binding determination.
Is it a prosecuting authority?
No. HaDSCO resolves individual service complaints; it does not prosecute providers and does not exercise the general administrative-complaints jurisdiction the WA Ombudsman holds. Where a complaint discloses conduct requiring registration-board or criminal action, HaDSCO's role is to refer it onward, not to determine that outcome itself. No specific leading case is cited here.
How it relates to the WA Ombudsman
Both bodies resolve complaints about public services, but HaDSCO's jurisdiction is limited to health, disability and mental health services specifically, while the Ombudsman's jurisdiction is general administration across WA public authorities. A complaint about a hospital's clinical service sits with HaDSCO; a complaint about how an unrelated agency handled a licence application sits with the Ombudsman.
Self-check
- Have I limited HaDSCO's jurisdiction to health, disability and mental health services, not administration generally?
- Have I described its process as investigation and conciliation, not adjudication?
- Have I avoided asserting case law this factsheet did not confirm?