Revised registration standards approved

30 Oct 2015

The Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council has approved the Medical Board of Australia’s revised registration standards for medical practitioners. 

Registration standards define the requirements that applicants and registrants in the regulated professions need to meet to be registered.

The revised standards, approved on 27 August 2015, will come into effect progressively over the next 12 months, replacing existing standards.

There are revised standards for:

• professional indemnity insurance (PII) arrangements
• recency of practice, and
• continuing professional development (CPD).

There are also revised registration standards for limited registration that apply to international medical graduates who do not qualify for general or specialist registration. They are:

• Limited registration for area of need
• Limited registration for postgraduate training or supervised practice
• Limited registration for teaching or research
• Limited registration in public interest

Start dates for the standards vary:

• the new registration standard for PII will commence in early 2016 and transitional arrangements will apply
• the new registration standards for CPD and recency of practice will commence 1 October 2016, to align with the registration renewal period
• the four registration standards for limited registration will commence in the first quarter of 2016 (date to be confirmed).

The standards will be published soon and more information will be available on the Medical Board’s website. The Board will also advise medical practitioners directly through updates in the Medical Board’s electronic newsletter.

The standards were revised after a scheduled review, which included public consultation. National Boards today published consultation reports summarising the consultation processes, the logic for any changes and proposed next steps, including planned further work.

Additional resources

The following additional resources about the revised standards are available on the AHPRA website.

• letters of approval
• consultation reports:
  • Continuing professional development registration standard
  • Recency of practice registration standard
  • Professional indemnity insurance arrangements registration standard
• common FAQs and timetable for commencement