Ahpra welcomes announcement of review to ease the complexity of health regulation

31 May 2024

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) and the National Boards welcome the announcement by the Health Chief Executives’ Forum (HCEF) of a review into the complexity of Australia’s current health practitioner regulatory system.

The review of the regulatory complexity of the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (Complexity Review) has six terms of reference including an examination of reform options, to streamline and harmonise decision-making, improvements to the complaints management and disciplinary processes to make them more consumer driven, and ways to achieve greater consistency through state and territory civil and administrative tribunals around regulatory decisions, particularly those relating to professional misconduct.

The HCEF supports the Australian Health Ministers’ Meeting to deliver national workforce priorities.

The Complexity Review is expected to report by the end of this year.

Ahpra CEO Martin Fletcher welcomed the Complexity Review.

'Moves to make health regulation more straightforward will have huge benefits for the public as well as practitioners,’ Mr Fletcher said.

‘Australia’s health regulatory system has many moving parts, with a range of agencies and decision-makers which can make it difficult to navigate for consumers.

‘Ahpra and the National Boards look forward to working with other stakeholders to reduce the complexity and help make the system simpler and better for consumers.’

Mr Fletcher also welcomed the appointment of former NSW Health Care Complaints Commissioner Sue Dawson as the independent review chair.

Co-convenor of the Forum for National Board Chairs and Accreditation Scheme Chairs, Rachel Phillips, said the National Boards look forward to contributing to the review and she thanked Health Ministers for their commitment to seeking input for improvements to the regulation of health practitioners.

‘The complexity review comes not long after the Kruk Review into health practitioner regulatory settings that has already led to significant reform of the practitioner registration system,’ she said.

‘All Board chairs are committed to this review which they see as an important driver to significant reform for the benefit of practitioners and health consumers.’

You can view the announcement by the Health Chief Executives’ Forum here.

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