Fitness to Practise Complaints

About Fitness to Practise Complaints

CORU is Ireland’s multi-profession health and social care regulator.

Its role is to protect the public by promoting high standards of professional conduct, education, training and competence through statutory registration of health and social care professionals.

CORU’s complaints process is referred to as Fitness to Practise. Complaints may only be made about health and social care professionals who are registered with CORU. The registers for the following professions are now open:

• Dietitians
• Occupational Therapists
• Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians
• Physiotherapists
• Radiographers/Radiation Therapists
• Social Workers
• Speech and Language Therapists

If you wish to check whether a health or social care professional is registered with CORU please click here.

Details of how Fitness to Practise works are available in the menu on the left of the screen.

Each profession has its own Registration Board which is responsible for the registration of members of the profession. Each Registration Board has its own Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics. For details of the Codes of Professional Conduct and Ethics for each of the professions currently with registers open, click here.

Fitness to Practise Complaints Open

CORU is now able to process complaints against registered health and social care professionals in respect of events that occurred on or after the 31 December 2014.

Fitness to Practise is concerned with those issues that affect a person’s ability to practise in their profession, not just in their current job. This includes professional misconduct and poor professional performance. It does not replace the existing complaints processes to employers.

The Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics, for each profession, sets out the standards of conduct, performance and ethics, which apply to all registered health and social care professionals. It is against these standards that an individual will be measured in any Fitness to Practise complaint.

CORU can only take action in respect of a registrant where the incidents complained of are serious and raise a concern about the registrant’s ability to practise his or her profession. CORU’s objective is to take action where necessary to protect service users, patients and the public interest.

Before making a complaint to CORU you may wish to consider whether it is better to make your complaint locally to the registrant directly or to the relevant employer.

The Fitness to Practise team in CORU can help with queries in relation to the types of complaints that can be considered by CORU. For information about the types of things that CORU cannot do please click here.

A complaint can be made by anyone in respect of a health and social care professional who is registered with CORU. Currently the Registers for Social Workers, Radiographers and Radiation Therapists, Dietitians, Speech and Language Therapists, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians can be accessed by the public here.

 If you wish to make a complaint against a health and social care professional not yet registered please go to www.healthcomplaints.ie for additional information.

You can read CORU's Guide to Fitness to Practise here. Detailed information sections for the Public, Registrants and Employers can also be accessed by using the menu on the left.

All complaints are dealt with by a Complaints Committee and it is important this Committee receives details of your complaint in your own words. As a result all complaints can only be accepted in writing on our Complaints Form. Complaint Forms MUST be signed and dated. To print a Complaints Form click here.

If you need assistance our Fitness to Practise section can be contacted by email at ftp@coru.ie or by phone from Monday to Friday 10.00am-1.00pm. Our number is  01 472 7903.