Public statements and warnings

There are times when Ahpra and the National Boards need a way of warning the general public about a serious risk from an individual – either a registered health practitioner or a person who does not hold registration but is providing a health service. If we are unable to manage that risk using other regulatory tools, we may decide to issue a public statement. 

This means we will publish the name of the practitioner on our website and give warnings or information to inform the public including about what action they should take. 

The threshold for issuing a public statement is set at a high level in the National Law. The decision to issue a public statement may only be made when Ahpra or the National Board forms a reasonable belief that the practitioner or person poses a serious risk and it is necessary to protect public health or safety. 

Examples of this are a person who continues to practise despite their registration being suspended, situations where patients may have been misdiagnosed or exposed to blood borne viruses or in the case of an unregistered practitioner, alerting the public to a ‘fake’ dentist. 

Issuing a public statement means we can warn the public while we continue to take steps to assess and investigate a matter that could raise a serious risk to the public.  

For more information about public statements, read the FAQs.

Details of any public statement warnings will be listed on this page. No public statement warnings are currently issued.