Complaints or notifications against health professionals are not uncommon and can have serious implications for a practitioner’s registration as well as their current and future employment.

AHPRA regulates all registered health pracitioners in Australia. When someone lodges a complaint or concern with AHPRA, it’s called a notification. This blog is a guide to the first steps a health practitioner should take if they receive a notification from AHPRA.

If you are a health professional or run a business that advertises health services, you must not engage in deceptive and misleading conduct. In this blog, we discuss health professionals’ obligations when it comes to advertising their services or therapeutic goods with a focus on the Australian Consumer Law and the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law.

To gain registration as a health practitioner in Australia, you must be granted registration by the relevant Board. There are different types of AHPRA registration – general registration, specialist registration, provisional registration, limited registration and non-practising registration.

On 7 March 2024, the Therapeutic Goods Administration updated their guidelines on advertising health services; specifically, the advertisement of services that involve therapeutic goods. The updated guidelines were effective immediately.

When is it necessary to notify the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency that you or another practitioner is suffering a health impairment? We explore health practitioners’ mandatory reporting obligations to AHPRA, of an impairment and what happens once a disclosure is made.

In most cases, health practitioners are required to inform AHPRA if they have been “charged” with a criminal offence, whether or not they are convicted.

For health practitioners, facing the prospect of having immediate action taken against their professional registration can be one of the most stressful times in a health practitioner’s professional career, and it can be difficult for health practitioners to determine who to turn to for assistance.

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency is aware that vexatious notifications are made against health practitioners from time to time. To help identify and manage vexatious complaints, AHPRA has developed a framework for use by staff and regulatory decision-makers.

We recently represented a nurse who has been allowed to keep her registration despite the QCAT finding she engaged in professional misconduct by commencing and continuing a romantic relationship with a patient that she was treating.

This article addresses the dangers of responding to an initial Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) notification and subsequent inquiry, over the phone during the first point of contact.