2014/15 National Scheme annual report launched

05 Nov 2015

The 2014/15 annual report: AHPRA and National Boards has been published.

The report details the work of the National Boards and AHPRA in implementing the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme over the 12 months to 30 June 2015.

There are now 637,218 health practitioners registered to practise in Australia, from 14 different professions, representing overall growth of 2.9% over the past year.

Chinese Medicine Board of Australia Chair Professor Charlie Xue said assurance, challenge and improvement in proportionate regulation remained the focus for National Boards.

‘As National Boards we strive to be a driving force for positive change and leadership in public safety and facilitating access to health services,’ Professor Xue said.

‘Our efforts continue to identify a range of activities to improve patient safety and the quality of regulation for health professions. This report helps to inform the public and health practitioners how we meet our objectives and responsibilities on their behalf,’ he said.

‘Information about each of these registered health practitioners is easily available to the community through the national online register,’ said Martin Fletcher, Chief Executive Officer of AHPRA.

‘Maintaining an up to date national register is one of the most important ways in which we protect the public.’

For the Chinese medicine profession, the report reveals that:

• 4,494 Chinese medicine practitioners were registered at the end of June 2015 
• 10 notifications (concerns/complaints) were received about Chinese medicine practitioners (excluding NSW where there is a co-regulatory system)¹ 
• 12 notifications received in 2014/15 about Chinese medicine practitioners in NSW1 
• 17 notifications were closed by the end of June 2015 
• of the 17 notifications closed under the National Scheme, the Chinese Medicine Board of Australia determined: 
• to take no further action, or the case was to be retained and managed by the health complaints entity in the relevant state or territory in eight cases 
• that conditions be imposed on one practitioner’s registration 
• that cautions were issued in four cases, and 
• three resulted in cancellation or suspension of registration. 
• the Board conducted a public consultation on Guidelines for safe Chinese herbal medicine practice, leading to the establishment of a technical advisory group to ensure key issues were addressed adequately and to develop guidelines, and 
• supported the transitional arrangements to facilitate the end of the grandparenting provisions on 30 June 2015.  

The 2014/15 Annual Report includes a detailed report - including data - for the Chinese Medicine Board of Australia.

A media release about the report - with data across professions and jurisdictions - is published on the AHPRA website.

A report, which presents the data specific to Chinese medicine practice, will be published on the Board’s website before the end of the calendar year.

For more information

• Go to the AHPRA Annual Report 2014/15
• Read the National Scheme media release 
• Lodge an online enquiry form 
• For registration enquiries: 1300 419 495 (within Australia) +61 3 9275 9009 (overseas callers) 
• For media enquiries: (03) 8708 9200

Download a PDF of this Media release - 2014/15 National Scheme annual report launched - 5 November 2015 (204 KB,PDF)

¹NSW is part of the National Scheme but notifications about practitioners’ health, performance and conduct are handled by the HCCC and the NSW health professional councils supported by the HPCA. Some NSW regulation data published in the 2014/15 annual report may vary from data published in the NSW HPCA annual report due to subsequent data review by the HPCA.