Regulating health professions in 2015/16: National Board reports now published

14 Mar 2017

Annual report summaries for each of the 14 professions regulated under the National Health Practitioner Regulation Law, as in force in each state and territory, have now been published online.

These reports draw on data from the 2015/16 annual report published by AHPRA and the National Boards, and offer unique insights into the registrant base for each health profession. For example:

• The profession with the largest number of registered health practitioners is nursing and midwifery, at 380,208 registrants. 
• Nurses and midwives make up 58.7% of all registered health practitioners in Australia. 
• The profession with the smallest number of registered practitioners is the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce (587 registrants, equating to less than 01% of all health practitioners). However it is also the fastest growing profession in the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme, with applications for registration increasing by 50% since 30 June 2015.
• Medical practitioners make up 16.3%, at 107,179 registrants. 
• The profession with the highest percentage of male practitioners is chiropractic (61.5%). 
• The profession with the highest percentage of female practitioners is midwifery (99.6%). 
• The profession with the greatest gender equality is dental, with 49% women and 51% men.

The summary reports also document the number of complaints and concerns that were lodged with AHPRA throughout the year to 30 June 2016, including the number of matters opened and closed throughout the year per profession, types of complaint, and segmentation of data by state and territory.

At times, the data illustrate the range of regulatory issues across professions, such as:

• Notifications about medical practitioners represent 52% of all notifications received by AHPRA in 2015/16. 
• The profession with the highest ratio of practitioners being actively monitored by AHPRA is Chinese medicine (954, or 19.2% of all monitoring cases). This is largely due to having English-language related conditions placed on their registration. 
• The profession with the highest number of complaints about possible statutory offences was chiropractic. Almost all of these matters related to advertising concerns, which has prompted the Chiropractic Board of Australia to raise awareness among practitioners of their obligations under the National Law.

To download any or all of these reports, state and territory summary reports, or the complete 2015/16 annual report, visit our microsite.

For more information

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