Complaints and critical-incident procedure

The two tracks

• A service-delivery complaint, such as a doctor who did not attend, a technical failure, or a payment, is handled on the facts of what was delivered. The strike systems here are service ones only: no-show and refund delay.
• A concern about clinical care or a doctor's registration is different. Afya does not judge clinical care. We log it and route it to the doctor's own duty to report critical incidents to the health regulator.

What we treat as a critical incident

• An error that affected a patient's care.
• A consultation that ended before it should have.
• A referral that was delayed.

How a report moves

1. Logged: every report is recorded with the time and what was reported.
2. Routed: a clinical concern or a critical incident is routed to the provider's regulator duty and the provider is notified.
3. Reviewed: a person reviews it and may contact you if you left a way to reach you.
4. Closed: we record how it was resolved.

Suspending online consultations

Where a report that a doctor has been struck off the register is credible, we suspend that doctor's online consultations while it is checked. This is a safety step, not a judgment about the doctor's care. We also suspend online consultations when a doctor's credentials are overdue for the twelve-month re-verification, or when a clinic repeatedly fails to make a refund it owes.

Your other routes

Using our channel never removes your right to complain elsewhere. You can raise a consumer matter with the Consumer Protection Authority, and a concern about a doctor's practice with the health regulator. Send a report through our complaints channel.