News

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AHPRA releases its annual report

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The 2017–18 annual report for the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) and the national boards is designed to provide a ‘nationwide snapshot’ and highlight the ‘multi-profession approach to risk-based regulation across the work of the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (the National Scheme)’.
 
‘Our annual report highlights the joint work we do to regulate health practitioners efficiently and effectively to keep the community safe,’ AHPRA chief executive officer Martin Fletcher said.
 
The report provided a number of insights into Australia’s healthcare workforce in the 2017–18 period.^*
 
Registration:

• There are 702,741 registered health practitioners across the 15 regulated professions throughout Australia, almost 24,000 more than the previous year  
• Student registrations increased by almost 4000 to 161,114
• More than 5950 health practitioners identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
• AHPRA received 73,759 new applications for registration, a 6.9% increase on the previous year

Notifications:

• AHPRA received 7276 notifications in 2017–18, more than any year since the National Scheme began, with 7105 of those notifications closed
• The three most common reasons for notification were clinical care (41%), medication-related issues (12.6%) and health impairment (8.9%)
• Immediate action was taken to restrict or suspend the registration of a practitioner on 413 occasions

Appeals:

• Of the 71 appeals that were finalised, 13 resulted in no change to the Board’s decision, 13 resulted in the decision being amended or substituted for a new decision, 36 resulted in the appeal being withdrawn, and nine were dismissed on administrative grounds

Statutory offences:

• AHPRA received 1043 advertising-related complaints and 416 new-offence complaints relating to title and practice protection
• Twelve cases of falsely claiming to be a registered health practitioner were successfully prosecuted before the courts

Compliance:

• AHPRA monitored the registration of 5005 practitioners in 2017–18, with the majority of cases related to additional requirements about suitability and eligibility for registration

Accreditation:

• The National Scheme accredited more than 740 approved programs of study delivered by more than 300 education providers

The AHPRA Annual Report 2017/18 is available online.
  
^* Not an exhaustive list.

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AHPRA Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency

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