Hospital Appeal Board

The Hospital Appeal Board (HAB) is an independent appeal tribunal established by the Hospital Act that hears appeals of decisions made by hospital boards of management regarding permits to practice in a hospital. It provides medical practitioners with an avenue of appeal from hospital board decisions affecting their hospital privileges. Its mandate is to hear and decide appeals regarding:

• A decision of a board of management that modifies, refuses, suspends, revokes or fails to renew a practitioner's permit to practice in a hospital.
• The failure or refusal of a board of management to consider and decide on an application for a permit.

The suspension, revocation and failure to renew hospital privileges results in tensions between a practitioner’s desire for maximum access to public hospitals, the hospital’s need to exercise control over the number of practitioners and their practice standards, and the public’s interests in an efficient and high quality health care service. The HAB’s mandate is to ensure that hospitals balance these conflicting interests fairly and responsibly.