Steps made towards ‘compassionate regulation’: AHPRA

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) is progressing changes to make its complaints process less stressful for doctors, following long-held concerns over the impact of notifications on practitioner wellbeing.
 
As it takes steps towards ‘compassionate regulation’, AHPRA has revealed practitioners with lived experience of the notifications process will play a part in its reforms, alongside a suite of changes already in place.
 
It comes after an Expert Advisory Group (EAG) was commissioned in 2021 to gain deeper understanding of the impact that being the subject of a complaint has on practitioners.
 
The group’s 2023 final report contained 15 recommendations and proposed 33 actions, with a new interim report showing 13 of these actions have so far been carried out.
 
AHPRA Chief Executive Justin Untersteiner said the reforms aim to make the process less stressful for practitioners.
 
‘We want to minimise the distress that someone feels when they’re going through the notification process,’ he said.
 
‘We know that safe practice starts with practitioner wellbeing.’
 
As part of its reforms, AHPRA is now preferencing engagement with existing treating practitioners over independent health assessments – a previous requirement which ‘can add months to the length of time a notification is open’.

The interim report shows that in 2021–22, 207 independent assessments were requested, however by 2023–24 that number had reduced significantly to 24.
 
‘As a result of this and other changes, the average age of open notifications where health is the primary concern reduced by more than 74%, from 332 days to 87 days, between 1 July 2022 and 31 March 2024,’ the report states.
 
There has also been a 94% drop, between 2021–22 and 2023–24, in the number of immediate actions taken where the single concern was health.
 
AHPRA also now only seeks information about a practitioner’s health that is relevant to the concern being considered, with its regulatory decision makers reporting that, in most instances, ‘the information provided is sufficient’.
 
RACGP Expert Committee – Funding and Health System Reform Chair Associate Professor Rashmi Sharma said the steps identified in the report appear to be ‘eminently sensible’.
 
‘It is very pleasing to see the significant drop in the average time taken to process health-related notifications, and also immediate actions in health-only cases reducing by 94% from 373 practitioners in 2021–22 to 24 in 2023–24,’ she told newsGP.
 
Associate Professor Sharma also welcomes moves to provide better support to doctors, including campaigns to address myths and misinformation about notifications.
 
‘We strongly support more education for health practitioners to help them understand the complex regulatory landscape and what they are obligated to report,’ she said.
 
The overall approach outlined by AHPRA is to shift towards more compassionate management of health complaints.
 
‘Through the evolution of this work and building on the work that preceded it, AHPRA and the National Boards are seeking to become a more compassionate regulator,’ the interim report said.
 
‘We know that the circumstances leading a member of the public to make a complaint can be fraught and frustrating, and that the impact of a complaint on a practitioner, independent of the outcome, is stressful and can be devastating.
 
‘Elements of the regulatory process, such as the time it takes and confusion about how it works, can be stressful for both parties, and many of the changes we are making will benefit patients and practitioners.’
 
The AHRPA progress report acknowledges the pressures faced by frontline health workers, and the work that has been undertaken across the health sector to better understand mental health and wellbeing issues.
 
It also explains that ‘integrating compassion into regulatory practice can increase patient safety’.
 
‘We can protect public safety and treat everyone involved with respect and compassion. A healthy practitioner provides safer healthcare.’
 
Associate Professor Sharma said that while GPs understand AHPRA is obligated to investigate notifications and go through the necessary processes, practitioners under review must be treated with respect.
 
‘The mental health impacts of the regulatory process have been widely documented over the years, including several cases of practitioner suicides resulting from complaints,’ she said.
 
AHPRA’s response to the EAG report has been aided by the involvement of practitioners who have lived experience of the notifications process, including Ms Amanda Haimes, who is also a member of the EAG.
 
‘Our work is about change; change that means future practitioners won’t have to carry the same fear, shame or pain that we did,’ Ms Haimes said.
 
‘If our work with the EAG makes that a reality, then it’s all been worth it, and I can’t think of a more worthy cause.’
 
The RACGP has consistently called on government to minimise the impact of regulatory processes on specialist GPs, reduce overreach, and ensure GPs can focus their attention on providing high-quality care to patients
 
Overall, reforms have ranged from changes to the recruitment of regulatory advisors to improve negotiation and conflict resolution skills to addressing myths and misinformation about notifications.

Some of the remaining tasks require further collaboration with professional associations, support services, indemnity providers, legal defence firms and education providers, AHPRA said.
 
The final recommendations and actions will be implemented in 2026.
 
Log in below to join the conversation.

AHPRA GP wellbeing mental health