Engaging with Ahpra on social media

The Ahpra social media accounts are for us to engage with practitioners, members of the community, employers of health practitioners, students and other interested persons about the regulation of Australia’s registered health practitioners.

We monitor our social media accounts during standard Australian business hours, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. Please note that our accounts are not staffed after hours or on weekends and public holidays.

When you engage with us via social media, please be respectful of what you say to other users and be mindful to be constructive in how you engage in discussion. Do not make personal or insulting remarks. The rule of thumb is: ‘play the ball, not the person’.

The scheme regulating health practitioners in Australia has protecting the public as one of its main objectives. Making sure people know and understand how the scheme works and how to engage with it is very important to us.

We will do our best to provide the best information possible. However, we may not always be able to provide you with the information you want as we are bound by the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, as in force in each state and territory (National Law) as well as other commonwealth and state/territory legislation. We can’t discuss some topics in public – for example, we can’t provide (and won’t comment on) anything relating to a specific practitioner or case.

If you have a query that can’t be discussed on social media, we will refer you to our customer service team (tel: 1300 419 495), which operates under the principles explained above.

We cannot accept notifications (complaints) about the health conduct or performance of a registered health practitioner through social media. If you would like to lodge a notification:

• call 1300 419 495 during business hours 
• complete our online form or download the PDF form from our Make a complaint page, or 
• go to your local Ahpra office.

We reserve the right to remove any posts for any reason, including posts that:

• don’t adhere to these guidelines 
• include personal information, such as names, addresses and phone numbers 
• are likely to cause offence or insult 
• personally attack, defame or name-call individuals or groups of people 
• contain commercial content or advertising 
• are obscene, racist, discriminatory, sexual or indecent in nature 
• are directed at another user and intended to bully, ‘troll’, defame or otherwise harm or distress someone else 
• promote inaccurate, inappropriate or harmful advice or information 
• contravene any applicable laws, including copyright, privacy, etc, or 
• contravene the platform (e.g. Twitter’s) terms and conditions.

Comments posted to the Ahpra social media pages do not represent the opinions of Ahpra and its employees. Ahpra takes no responsibility for user content posted to its social media pages.

If there is a difference between the advice and information we provide via social media and that which is published on the Ahpra or National Board websites, please tell us! If this were to happen, the advice and information that is published on the websites is considered to be correct.

We reserve the right to update or change these guidelines without notice.

If you have any questions about these guidelines, please feel free to email us or call the customer service team on 1300 419 495 during business hours.