Our work as Queensland's independent health watchdog is underpinned by the Health Quality and Complaints Commission Act 2006 and our responsive regulation model, which moves beyond the traditional regulatory roles of deterrence and compliance.
In enacting responsive regulation, we apply greater scrutiny and more powerful interventions to healthcare providers who are assessed as having lower levels of safety and quality or who fail to demonstrate improvement.
At the tip of the pyramid, we hold concerns about the safety and quality of healthcare delivered by a minority of providers, who are unwilling to improve, incapable of improving or ineffective at improving.
We believe most healthcare providers are represented at the base of our responsive regulation pyramid - they deliver safe, high quality care, have a positive attitude to improvement, and may never come to our attention.
Our response framework
Our r
esponse framework outlines the range of responses available to us and guides our decision-making in regulating a large and diverse system of healthcare providers. Our responses are based on the degree of concern we have about the safety and quality of health services being provided, as well as healthcare provider attitudes and behaviours towards improvement.