Greater protection for AHPRA complainants

It is now illegal to retaliate against anyone who has raised concerns with a regulator about a healthcare practitioner, under new laws beginning on Monday.
 
The changes make it an offence to threaten, intimidate, dismiss, refuse to employ, or discriminate against someone involved in a complaint to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) or the National Boards.
 
Designed to offer better protection for those who raise concerns, the offences are punishable by fines, as well as disciplinary action for healthcare professionals, as of 1 December.
 
The maximum penalty is $60,000 for an individual or $120,000 for a body corporate.
 
The changes also relate to using a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to impede investigations, and follow on from a 2022 review of the regulation of medical practitioners who perform cosmetic surgery.
 
An independent report found NDAs were being used to impede investigations.
 
AHPRA Chief Executive Justin Untersteiner said people are ‘free to complain’ despite any clause in an NDA and it is an offence to enter into an agreement that does not set that out in writing.
 
‘No one can make you sign away your right to make a complaint about a practitioner,’ he said.
 
‘AHPRA’s number-one priority is to prevent harm, and to do that we need all the available evidence and information.
 
‘We expect the support and cooperation of all involved when it comes to public safety.’
 
According to AHPRA, reprisals are uncommon, but it ‘will not hesitate to prosecute anyone who threatens notifiers or witnesses acting in good faith’.
 
In 2024–25, AHPRA received 13,327 notifications about practitioners, a 19% jump in just one year and the largest increase since the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme began in 2010.
 
Log in below to join the conversation.

AHPRA Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency National Boards