Review Board Overview

There are six Patient Care Quality Review Boards in total – one for each health authority region (see map) and one for the Provincial Health Services Authority. The review boards are independent of the health authorities and are accountable to the Minister of Health Services.

The Patient Care Quality Review Boards receive and review care quality complaints that have first been addressed by a health authority’s Patient Care Quality Office and remain unresolved. Upon completion of a review, the boards may make recommendations to the Minister of Health Services and the health authorities for improving the quality of patient care in British Columbia.

The review boards are supported by a common administrative body called the Secretariat, which is currently based in Victoria. The Secretariat works on behalf of the boards to receive and process requests from people wishing for a review of their complaint. The Secretariat also acts as the liaison between the review boards, the health authorities and the Minister of Health Services.

What can a Patient Care Quality Review Board review?

Review boards will review:

  • Complaints about the quality of any health care service under the jurisdiction of the health authorities. (These complaints must first have been addressed by a health authority Patient Care Quality Office.)

  • Complaints about services expected but not delivered by the health authority

  • Complaints that were not addressed by the Patient Care Quality Office in a timely way

  • Matters directed  by the Minister of Health Services

Review boards will not review care quality complaints regarding:

  • Health professionals providing services in private practice, where the services are funded by MSP or PharmaCare (e.g. general practitioner and pharmacist services)

  • Health care or related services that are paid for entirely by the patient, or by the patient and a private insurer (e.g. dental care, alternative therapies, fully private pay home support)

  • Health care or services provided in privately funded surgical centres or facilities, unless these are provided under contract with a health authority

  • Health care or services provided by HealthLines Services BC, such as Nurse Line, Dial-a-Dietician and bcbedline, where the services are funded by the Ministry of Health Services

  • BC Ambulance Service that do not involve inter-facility transfer (i.e. services are funded by patients and the Ministry of Health Services)

  • Child care complaints

  • Complaints about assisted living services that were not provided by a health authority

  • Complaints about involuntary admissions under the Mental Health Act

  • Complaints about a decision of a Medical Health Officer or delegate under the Community Care and Assisted Living Act

  • Complaints about a decision of the Community Care and Assisted Living Act Appeal Board.