The Health And Disability Commissioner is a New Zealand Crown entity responsible for promoting and protecting the rights of health and disability services consumers, and facilitating the fair, simple, speedy, and efficient resolution of complaints.

History

Prior to 1972 to obtain compensation for illness, accident or disability the consumer would have to go through the Workers Compensation act, or through the common law. The Woodhouse report led to the Accident Compensation Act (1994). The purpose of this was to speed treatment and compensation. Consumers could not sue healthcare providers under this act. The Accident Compensation Act (1974) was intended to give better access to services for consumers. However the shortcomings with this was that healthcare providers that consistently provided substandard care were not penalized. Following the Cartwright inquiry, the Health and Disability act (1992) appointed the Health and Disability commissioner to receive complaints from consumers, review and address where there are breaches. Morag McDowell became Health and Disability Commissioner in September 2020. She came to the HDC after 13 years as a Coroner in the Auckland region.

Function of the HDC

The Health and Disability Commissioner is established under the Health and Disability Commissioner Act 1994. The statutory purpose of the Health and Disability Commissioner is to "promote and protect the rights of health consumers and disability services consumers," and facilitate "the fair, simple, speedy, and efficient resolution of complaints". To this end, the Health and Disability Commissioner's stated functions are to: