AHPRA not keeping pace as notifications surge

A surge in notifications has left the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) struggling to meet workload demands – particularly for more complex cases.
 
AHPRA’s Regulatory Performance Committee annual report shows a 19% increase in notifications in 2024–25, with authors warning the rise is placing ‘significant pressure’ on the organisation.
 
While the report states that the average time to complete a notification in 2024–25 ‘was the lowest on record’, it also notes this was ‘driven largely by faster completion times for low-risk matters’.
 
The committee’s chair, Andrew Brown – a lawyer who was formerly the Queensland Health Ombudsman – said ‘aged notifications were a significant focus for the committee’, with notifications older than 12 months growing by 30.7%.
 
In May, AHPRA said it was reviewing all notifications older than a year, ‘ensuring there are clear completion strategies for each case’.
 
Mr Brown also said that despite an 8.9% increase in the number of notifications the regulator finalised compared to the previous financial year, it ‘did not keep pace with the increase in incoming notifications’.
 
‘As a result, the number of open notifications as at 30 June 2025 grew by 26.7%, adding 1186 matters to the total open,’ he wrote.
 
‘The increase in workloads and the challenges posed by the growing number of aged matters will require sustained and targeted attention.’
 
AHPRA recently disclosed via a Freedom of Information request that a total of 12,157 notifications were closed in the 2024–25 financial year, with 5% older than 12 months.
 
When asked for specific figures on the number of notifications received in 2024–25, including those relating to medical practitioners, an AHPRA spokesperson said these would be published imminently in its annual report.
 
‘We cannot attribute the rise in notifications to a single factor, however we believe the growth in practitioners in the past year, the continued notifications process improvements and wider public awareness of the National Scheme have contributed significantly,’ they told newsGP.
 
It is likely this year’s annual report will show the number of notifications to be the highest on record, with the organisation’s CEO Justin Untersteiner recently acknowledging the regulator is handling ‘more matters than ever before’.
 
In its 2023–24 annual report, AHPRA stated that 11,156 notifications were finalised, a total it said was ‘more than any previous year’, with 5049 open notifications as of June 30, 2024.
 
Meanwhile, there were 11,200 notifications to AHPRA in the same timeframe, a higher number than it has ever previously recorded. There were also 5829 notifications in NSW and 2493 in Queensland, where the process is managed separately by the NSW Health Professional Councils Authority and the Queensland Office of the Health Ombudsman respectively.
 
AHPRA’s spokesperson said the regulator ‘is conducting its own end-to-end review of the notification system, having already moved to improve the experience of those involved in the process’.
 
They also said a new National Scheme Strategy was in development to help create a timely, efficient and transparent notifications system that ‘demonstrates high levels of procedural fairness’.
 
The latest figures come at a time when there is a significant spotlight on AHPRA, following the launch of a ‘complexity review’ into the National Scheme last year.
 
There were 26 recommendations put forward in the ‘Transforming Health Professions Regulation in Australia’ report, which was released in September.

It proposed that notifications against health professionals should ultimately all go through a ‘single front door’ in each jurisdiction, with only the more serious allegations passed on to AHPRA.
 
The report also suggested the AHPRA Board ‘immediately improves timeliness and quality of investigation processes and decision making and the availability of clinical advice across all regulatory functions, with specified actions to achieve this’.
 
‘Practitioners understandably object to the frequency with which notifications are made and subject to lengthy consideration even when in 85% of cases there is no further action required,’ the report stated.
 
The RACGP has consistently called for changes to the notifications process, including in its submission to the complexity review.
 
‘The RACGP supports a notifications system that balances patient safety with sensible processes that do not unduly impact the delivery of high-quality care,’ the college stated.  
 
‘Despite this, there are several issues with the management of notifications, including those deemed high-risk.
 
‘These include timeframes for cases to be resolved, reputational damage and a lack of support provided to doctors.
 
‘The impact of vexatious notifications on practitioners should not be underestimated, even if these are eventually dismissed.’
 
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