File medical and dental complaints with us - Prasad

The Fiji Medical and Dental Secretariat said the law is currently silent on whether members of the public can file complaints against doctors and dentists who they believe did not provide the expected level of service to the patient prior to March 2010.

Fijivillage has raised this issue as we have received calls by people over the past few weeks, asking whether they can take their concerns to the secretariat and ensure that the Fiji Medical Council deal with the complaints, as was the case with the Independent Legal Services Commission.

The people who contacted us said they could not take further action in relation to the alleged cases of medical negligence because they could not afford to hire a lawyer to sue the doctor concerned.

They said they want to take that step now with the establishment of the council.

Secretariat Chief Executive Officer Dharmesh Prasad said they will have to make the decision on a case by case basis.