COMPLAINTS
NOTE: Even though this video mentions Queensland, the general points are still relevant to other states.
HOW TO STEP BY STEP
1. Request a copy of your medical records. To do this, Google your hospital name + 'copy of medical records'
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2. Google your hospital's consumer feedback email address.​
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3. Using the email template on the right as a guide, copy and paste and edit to fit your experience.
4. Set a calendar alert to check you've received a written response in 30 days as you may need to chase up a written response.
5. Email the hospital's response HERE.
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PLEASE NOTE
If you've found these resources helpful and are in a position to; please consider joining MCA as a member so that we can continue building on this work and providing complaints templates for each state. JOIN NOW HERE
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- This is not medical or legal advice but potential remedies to encourage care providers to deliver respectful maternity care.
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- These templates are QLD specific as we are still working on collating templates for other states.
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- This process is most easily done on a desktop, for ease of copying and pasting from the Hosptials table.
EXAMPLE TEMPLATE
What happened?
Here are some examples:
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(They did to me...)
-I consented to a vaginal exam but was given a stretch and sweep without consent
-I was told I wasn't allowed access to water birth as pain relief and coerced into epidural
-I was forced into my back and it hurt and caused me to tear
-I was touched without consent
-I was coerced into induction/c-section with the dead baby card
-I wasn't given full free and informed consent abut the risks of induction/c-section
-I didn't give full free and informed consent for GTT and was unaware of the risks and consequences of having this test.
-I was yelled at for eating/vomiting
-My clitoral tissue was severed with reduced sexual function without full free and informed consent
-I was given a husband stitch which is female genital mutilation without full free and informed consent
-I was coerced into an anal exam despite no clinical indication or evidence for this degrading practice
-I was given a synto injection without full free and informed consent ie not told the risks to me and my baby.
-My babies cord was cut early for no reason causing harm and resuscitation didn't occur on me which is most optimal
-My placenta was disposed of without full free and informed consent with devastating impacts on its cultural significance
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(No access to...)
-Qld is the only state not to have insurance for publicly funded homebirth. -I am being denied access to the best outcomes for myself and my baby (Homer 2019, Tuck-Davies 2018, Sandal 2018, Reitsma 2020)
-I didn't get into MGP
-I didn't get into Birth Center
-I didn't get to birth close to home
-I didn't get access to waterbirth
-I didn't get access to a vaginal breech birth clinic
-My private midwife, photographer or doula wasn't allowed to support me even though I had paid them
-Support people of choice given the cultural significance to me.
-Birthing on Country Services
-In home postnatal support
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How it made you feel?
Here are some examples:
-inhuman, lack of choice, coerced, offended, not valued, degraded, treated like a child with no autonomy, risking my baby and my morbidity, fear, scared, unsupported, risk of poor outcomes associated with hospital birth, not listened to, anxious about strangers,
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Remedy
What do you want the service to respond with?
- Apology for not providing it
- Apology for not providing info on accessing best practice models of care and place of birth
- Apology for not providing information on how to complain and remedy at time of appointment to ensure full, free and informed consent
-Facility upgrade and Clinician upskilling in clinical practice
- Hospital service: to write to state Minister for Health asking for Publicly Funded Homebirth insurance to be added to insurance certificate, greater access to birth centres & continuity targets
- Infographics publicly available on social media showing maternity outcomes and experience measures (such as percentage of consumers offered MGP at time of birth, water birth, c-section, perineal trauma including episiotomy and 3/4 degree tear rate)
-This service paying for private care if unable to meet your needs.