2018–2020
The events themselves: a transfer of care when my family doctor retired, a clinic move and a change of electronic record system in early 2019, an appointment that no longer appears in my chart, and my care moving elsewhere.
This is a personal account by a former complainant. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba. To make a complaint, or to read the College’s own material, go to cpsm.mb.ca.
My complaint to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba was closed 180 days after it was received — by a staff decision, before it reached the Complaints Committee. Because no committee decided anything, no finding existed, and no review or appeal attached to it.
This page is about that gap. It is not about the physician, and it is not a claim that my complaint should have succeeded.
The events themselves: a transfer of care when my family doctor retired, a clinic move and a change of electronic record system in early 2019, an appointment that no longer appears in my chart, and my care moving elsewhere.
The College receives my complaint — six years after the events.
The first correspondence about the file appears in the record, roughly two and a half months after it was filed.
The physician’s written response reaches the College. It answers each of my questions and explains the likely loss of the record. Close to four months after filing.
The College writes to me and I reply in writing over the following days.
The College writes to close the file, by a decision of the Assistant Registrar declining to investigate.
180 days from receipt to closure
These are the College’s own published steps. Solid markers are steps my file reached.
I want to be fair about this. My complaint was sent to the physician, he answered it substantively, and I got to reply. That is not nothing, and I am not suggesting I was ignored. What never happened is the last step. Review and appeal rights attach to a committee decision. Without one there is no finding to disagree with and nothing to take anywhere else.
The College’s published process guide says complaints may be dismissed when they are deemed trivial, vexatious, or unsustainable under the Regulated Health Professions Act, that complainants are given the reasons, and that a dismissal may be appealed to a panel of the Complaints Committee.
My closing letter gave reasons. It did not mention an appeal, or name the provision it was acting under. In a sworn affidavit later filed in court, the College describes what happened as a decision of the Assistant Registrar to decline to investigate. So there was a decision, made by a named official. What I still cannot tell you is what rule it was made under, or what review that rule carries.
That is the question I would put to any regulator that closes a file on you: name the provision, and tell me what review it carries. It is a short question and there is no good reason not to answer it.
What I cannot tell you is whether complaints are often closed this way, or whether my file was typical. I have one file and I am not going to pretend it is data. Nobody outside the College can answer that, because the figures are not published — not how many complaints are received, not how long they take, not how many end before a committee ever sees them.
My complaint may well have been unwinnable. It was six years late, the clinic’s records had migrated systems, and both physicians who could have spoken to the missing appointment have since died. None of that affects the three points below.
The Law Society of Manitoba already has this. When a complaint about a lawyer is concluded by a staff decision without going to its Complaints Investigation Committee, the complainant can ask an independent Complaints Review Commissioner to look at it. A Manitoba physician complainant whose file is closed the same way has no equivalent.
Ontario’s Health Professions Procedural Code requires a panel to dispose of a complaint within 150 days of filing. Manitoba sets no comparable deadline in statute.
How many complaints are received, how long they take, and how many are closed before reaching a committee. None of that is published, so no complainant can tell whether their experience is ordinary. Another Manitoba complainant asked the province for exactly this reporting in 2025.
Mine took 180 days from receipt to the letter closing it. The College says completing the process can take several months. In September 2025, CBC News reported on a Winnipeg complainant who had waited about a year.
No. The College’s published guide says complaints may be dismissed when deemed trivial, vexatious, or unsustainable under the Regulated Health Professions Act. A file can also be closed without ever reaching the Complaints Committee.
The College’s guide says a dismissal may be appealed to a panel of the Complaints Committee. If your file is closed without a committee decision, ask in writing which provision it was closed under and what review that route carries. My letter did not say.
A regulatory complaint will not recover a document. Records in Manitoba must be kept at least 10 years from the last entry. To pursue the record itself, make a written request under The Personal Health Information Act to the trustee holding it, and ask what was searched, including any legacy system the records were migrated from. If the answer is that the record cannot be found, you have a right to complain to the Manitoba Ombudsman.
CPSM is a self-regulating body. Asked about complaint delays in 2025, the province said it does not direct the College’s investigations, while noting the College has a mandate to protect patient safety.
In September 2025, CBC News reported on a Winnipeg complainant who had waited about a year and asked the province to require reporting on staffing and backlogs. This is a different file raising a related question: what happens when a complaint is closed by staff before a committee sees it, and what review attaches to that.
The question I would want answered: of the complaints CPSM receives each year, how many are closed before reaching the Complaints Committee? I have no way to find out. The College holds those figures.
Documents. I hold the complaint, the correspondence, the closing letter, the physician’s response, and the record filed in court. These are available to journalists on request. I have not posted them because some are confidential and one names a physician I have chosen not to identify.
Contact. [ your name ] — [ your email ]. Available for interview, on the record.
What this page is not. It is not a claim that my complaint should have succeeded. It does not allege that anyone destroyed or withheld a record — the physician’s response explained the loss as a casualty of a 2019 clinic move and records migration, and apologised for it, and I accept that account. It does not name the physician and makes no allegation about the care I received. It is not legal advice.
What it is. One complainant’s account of one file, filed years after the events it concerns, published because of a single narrow point: a complaint can end in Manitoba without any decision that anyone can review.
Corrections. If anything here is factually wrong, write to me and I will correct it on this page.