AHPRA set to gauge doctors’ views of its role

AHPRA is set to ask medical professionals for their views on its work for the first time since 2021, the regulator confirmed this week.
 
A spokesperson said the regulator has received ethical approval for a new survey tool, used in a pilot late last year, and plans to send out surveys to a random sample of doctors and other health professionals by the end of June.
 
It will be the first AHPRA survey since a poll found doctors had the least positive view of the regulator among all 16 health professions that sit under its umbrella.
 
While slightly more than half of those surveyed overall in 2021 reported a positive view of AHPRA (52%), that number that stood at 35% for medical practitioners. Psychologists had the next lowest perception at 40%.
 
The 2021 survey attracted 1509 responses from medical practitioners, although the proportion of GPs was not specified. Of those surveyed, the majority were males (61%) and aged 50 and older (54%).
 
In another question directed to all health practitioners about trust in their national board, paramedics expressed the most negative view with just 34% saying they trusted their board, compared to 38% of medical practitioners.
 
‘Both trust and confidence in the Board have declined since the first survey in 2018,’ the ‘Reputational insights’ report, which was prepared by AHPRA for the Medical Board of Australia and published in 2023, stated.
 
The regulator commissioned an independent brand consultancy to carry out surveys from 2018–2020, with the 2021 poll run directly by AHPRA and following a similar format to previous years. The response rate of 11% for the most recent study was significantly higher than before.
 
In its report on the survey, AHPRA flagged that ‘a more robust research scope’ was being developed, ‘including a five-year plan to elicit extensive reputational insights’.
 
Areas of interest for future research would also be identified, the regulator said.
 
The new format will ‘embed a stronger research perspective that is anticipated to deliver improved data to inform our regulatory work,’ the AHPRA spokesperson said this week.    
 
While they did not specify how many GPs or medical professionals are likely to receive the survey, they said the sample size ‘will be sufficient to give a representative sense of the views of each profession’.
 
AHPRA has long been criticised for the length of time it has taken to resolve notifications.
 
Last year, former RACGP Vice President Dr Bruce Willett told newsGP how a trivial complaint against him took almost a year before it was finally dropped.
 
Since the previous survey took place, a triage committee was set up by the Medical Board of Australia in 2022, aimed at helping to deal with lower risk concerns more quickly.

In its latest annual report, the regulator recorded a decline in the number of notifications against medical practitioners in 2022–23.
 
However, doctors remain far more likely to be the target of a complaint than any health professionals, AHPRA indicated.
 
In the latest financial year around 5.7% of medical practitioners received a notification, while 1.5% was the average overall for health practitioners working under the auspices of the national boards.
 
AHPRA has confirmed the results will be made public in 2024.
 
Editor’s note: This article was updated on 05 February to include AHPRA's confirmation of when the survey results will be published.
 
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