Your right to request a review
Under the Health Professions Act (HPA), CPSA’s Complaints Director has the option to dismiss a complaint. This is typically done when a complaint is found to have insufficient or no evidence of unprofessional conduct.
If your complaint is dismissed, you have the right under the HPA to request a review of that decision from a CPSA Complaint Review Committee (CRC), a decision body made up of physicians and members of the public.
The CRC’s role is to independently review your complaint submission and any information available to the Complaints Director when they made their decision, to determine whether the decision to dismiss your complaint was reasonable.
When to request a review
If you believe the Complaints Director’s decision to dismiss your complaint was unreasonable, you can request a review. A review is not an appeal, a hearing or an opportunity to testify and provide new evidence.
We understand you may disagree with the decision to dismiss your complaint, but this does not mean the decision was unreasonable. Examples of unreasonable decisions are dismissals that don’t make sense based on the facts of the complaint, didn’t fully consider the evidence provided or don’t align with the applicable standards of medical practice.
A request to review a dismissed complaint must be submitted to CPSA within 30 days, according to the following timelines:
- If your dismissal letter is sent by email, the 30-day period begins on the date CPSA sends the letter to the email address you provided when you filed your complaint.
- If your dismissal letter is sent by registered mail, the 30-day period begins 7 days after the letter is given to a carrier for delivery (to allow for reasonable carrier processing time).
Submitting your request for review
Once submitted, a request for review is assessed by CPSA’s Hearings Director, who will confirm the request was received within the allotted time period and that reasons for requesting the review were provided.
- As this is a review of the Complaints Director’s decision, which is based on the evidence they had available at the time, you may not submit new information to support your argument.
- If you have provided new evidence with your submission, you will be asked to remove the new evidence and re-submit your request.
You will be notified in writing if and when the CRC will review your complaint.
How the review process works
The Hearings Director will:
- Process requests for review in the order they are received.
- Provide the regulated member with a copy of your request for review and provide them with an opportunity to respond.
- Collect your complaint package from the Complaints Director. This includes your complaint submission and any evidence or documentation the Complaints Director had when they made the decision to dismiss.
- Provide the CRC with copies of your request to review, your complaint package and the regulated member’s response to your request (if one is provided).
The CRC will review all the documentation and make one of the following decisions:
- Confirm that the decision to dismiss your complaint was reasonable (over 90% of dismissal decisions are upheld).
- Ask the Complaints Director to further investigate your complaint, prepare a report and submit it back to the CRC for a final decision.
- Refer your complaint to a hearing.
The CRC cannot:
- Re-open or direct an investigation about new issues or new information.
- Order a physician to give a diagnosis or certain treatments, or release or alter patient documents.
- Provide or influence financial compensation.
- Provide records from the complaints process to be used for other purposes.
- Offer legal advice.
Once they’ve reached a decision, the CRC will notify both you and the physician in writing. The entire process, from submitting the request to completion of the review, can take up to 12 months.
Ready to submit a request to review a dismissed complaint?
Requests must be submitted using our online form.
You can also download our pdf form and email your request to CRC@cpsa.ab.ca.
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Questions?
Submit your inquiry using the form to the right, or the contact information below.
Email: CRC@cpsa.ab.ca
Phone: 780-969-4961
Toll-free in Canada: 1-800-561-3899 ext. 4961
We are happy to answer any questions you have, however official requests for review are only accepted when submitted using our request form.