WA Annual Report Summary 2015/16

Foreword from the AHPRA Chair and CEO

The regulation of almost 660,000 registered health practitioners across 14 health professions and a federation of eight states and territories is a large and important task.

AHPRA and the National Boards rely on the local knowledge and expertise of boards, committees and our offices in each state and territory to protect the public Australia-wide. Our number one priority is patient safety while enabling a competent and flexible health workforce to meet the current and future health needs of the community.

Western Australia (WA) has 67,384 registered health practitioners. This represents 10.2% of all Australian practitioners, a growth of 2.7% from last year.

This year, the WA office continued its work to improve the notification process with a particular focus on new notifications that pose a potential risk to the public and warrant immediate attention.

Another area of focus has been on continuing to build relationships. The WA office participated in more than 170 external stakeholder activities, engaging approximately 50 different organisations about registration standards, notification processes and other issues related to the National Scheme.

The WA office works collaboratively with the NSW office to efficiently process complex registration applications from practitioners with an international nursing or midwifery qualification. Collectively, we assessed more than 3,450 applications in 2015/16, reducing assessment time by half.

In partnership with local state boards and committees, the WA office ensures timely and effective regulatory decision-making. This is consistent with our shared regulatory principles and our commitment to being a risk-based regulator.

We thank the staff of the WA office, boards and committee members for their hard work and commitment over the past year. While much has been achieved, there is always more to do. We look forward to continuing to work with them to serve the WA community.

Mr Martin Fletcher,
Chief Executive Officer

Mr Michael Gorton AM,
Chair, Agency Management Committee