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In this month's issue:
Australia’s leading survey of medical training is now open. If you’re a doctor in training, a supervisor, or interested in keeping Australia’s doctors among the best in the world, now is the time to get involved. Trainees can do the Medical Training Survey (MTS) and make their voice heard. Supervisors and employers can support trainees to do the MTS. There’s a role for us all.
Dr Susan O’Dwyer Chair, Medical Board of Australia
It’s that time of year. Registration renewal is now open for medical practitioners with general, specialist and non-practising registration.
You will have received your renewal email from Ahpra, with details and links to follow to renew. The steps to renew look a bit different this year, through IT system changes at our end.
There’s a short video showing the new renewal form on the Medical Board’s website. You can find general renewal information on the Ahpra renewal page and FAQs for medical practitioners on the Medical Board website.
The fee for 2025/26 is $1,058 and $908 in NSW. More information is on the Fees page. Registration fees fund the work of Ahpra and the National Boards to keep the public safe. Ahpra will email your renewal receipt shortly after your payment.
When you renew your registration this year, you will need to tell us the name of your CPD home for the 2024 calendar year.
Apply to renew early and avoid delays at our busiest time, especially if you need to log in to the Ahpra portal for the first time. (There’s more detail on that in this newsletter if you need it.)
You need to renew by 30 September 2025 to avoid late fees.
Just in case you missed the news last month, here’s a reminder that you’ll need to log in to the new Ahpra portal before you can renew your medical registration this year.
It takes a few steps to set up your portal when you log in for the first time, as it now uses multifactor authentication. Multifactor authentication is an extra layer of security to protect your Ahpra account. You will only need to set up the portal once.
The set-up process involves linking an authenticator app to your Ahpra portal. You don’t need to pay for an authenticator app – we recommend the free Google Authenticator app.
Look for the app with this icon in Apple’s App store or the Google Play store.
Do not delete the app once you have linked it. You will need a 6-digit code from it every time you log in. After you have installed the authenticator app, you can attach an account name to the code in the app for easy reference next time, e.g. ‘Ahpra portal’.
If you’re not sure how to login or link the app, there’s an online help centre with step-by-step guides, instruction videos and troubleshooting tips.
There is financial relief for medical practitioners taking parental and other forms of leave on the grounds of a protected attribute, with a 30 per cent rebate available on annual registration renewal fees. Protected attributes include parental leave, disability or status as a carer.
The rebate is available to medical practitioners who take at least six continuous months of leave on the basis of a protected attribute.
From 2025, a medical practitioner with general and/or specialist registration who has taken six or more months of protected attribute leave in the previous 12 months can receive a rebate of more than $300 on this year’s annual registration fee.
Ahpra is reviewing what else it can do to introduce more flexible fee-setting arrangements, with more changes to take effect from 1 July 2026.
Read the Fee relief for parental leave and other protected attribute leave policy on the Ahpra website for more information and more detail on fees on the Medical Board’s fees page.
We are often asked by medical practitioners considering their career options or planning their transition to retirement – do I still need to be registered?
Many wonder: Can I still teach or write referrals if I have non-practising registration? And is there a form of limited registration for doctors who no longer provide clinical care?
To share our answers, we’ve published an Information sheet – Medical practitioners – Who needs practising registration? It includes guidance about who needs a form of practising registration and what activities are allowed with non-practising registration.
The guidance aims to help doctors understand their registration options and when they need, or don’t need, practising registration. If you’re considering your options, we encourage you to read the guidance.
The short version:
The Medical Training Survey (MTS) is now open, giving trainees the chance to build the evidence being used to improve medical training in Australia.
The MTS generates a valuable, searchable online dataset that is freely available for everyone to use. Past years’ MTS data are accessible and free online through the MTS data dashboard.
Trainees are accessing and analysing past MTS results to inform their choice of training sites and specialties. Hospitals and employers are using the MTS data to identify hot-spots and drive positive changes in training.
Most doctors in training can do the MTS when they renew their medical registration. Or they can find their unique survey link in the ‘current activity’ area in their Ahpra portal, after they’ve renewed their registration.
Interns and international medical graduates can do the MTS by clicking on their unique survey link in an email invitation from the Medical Board.
The MTS is a longitudinal study that tracks the quality of medical training over time. Run by the Medical Board of Australia, stringent privacy controls make it safe and confidential for trainees to take part.
Most MTS questions are consistent year to year because comparisons are important. We streamline the format and layout of the survey each year making the MTS quicker and easier to do. In 2025, we are asking most specialist trainees what phase of training they are in.
Data from six years of MTS results has built a robust evidence base that hospitals are using to compare their performance and identify opportunities to improve.
Case studies showing how MTS results are being used to improve training are published on the MTS website.
More than half of Australia’s doctors in training do the MTS each year, with many using the results to research and benchmark their training options.
The MTS is open until 8 October 2025.
For more information on the survey visit MedicalTrainingSurvey.gov.au.
Trainees sometimes ask why they should do the Medical Training Survey (MTS) and how the results of Australia’s largest and leading survey of trainees are improving medical training.
One clear answer sits with the Australian Medical Council (AMC), which listens to the voices and experiences of trainees across medical specialities and colleges that are captured in MTS data, to inform its college accreditation decisions and standards.
The AMC sets and maintains high standards in medical education, on behalf of the Medical Board of Australia. It expects specialist medical colleges to use the MTS results as part of their AMC accreditation.
For the AMC, the detailed feedback from the MTS about trainees’ experiences and reflections on the quality of their training environments, is a vital data source driving continuous improvement.
The AMC expects colleges and prevocational medical training programs to engage with the MTS. It uses insights from MTS results to inform college accreditation assessments and in continuous monitoring of specialist medical education programs and providers.
Through the accreditation process, the AMC examines how colleges use the MTS results for monitoring and evaluation of the delivery of its training program/s and in monitoring of training settings. AMC assessors regularly cite MTS data in reports, triangulating it with college-supplied data when assessing specialist programs. When considering monitoring submissions from colleges, AMC assessors review the college’s report against the MTS survey outcomes and look closely for improvements or new areas of concern identified in the most recent survey.
MTS data also plays an important role in the AMC’s current review of accreditation standards for specialist medical training. A cross-sectional analysis of MTS data highlighted key development areas to include in the next AMC standards revision, including wellbeing and feedback on trainee assessments.
We’re sharing the lessons from the complaints we receive, to signpost some preventable pitfalls. To avoid blame and shame, we’ve blended the facts from several cases – this month about practitioners prescribing for family members.
The Medical Board’s Code of conduct, Good medical practice: a code of conduct for doctors in Australia, makes it clear that medical practitioners must not prescribe drugs of dependence to close family members.
We regularly advise doctors to not prescribe for themselves or for people close to them. Yet each time we publish an article, a small number of doctors who don’t agree with the position contact us, often referring to the convenience and cost savings, but not recognising the potential dangers.
Ahpra received a notification that a medical practitioner had issued multiple prescriptions for drugs of dependence and a medical certificate for his partner (who had a different surname) purporting to be her treating doctor. The doctor also prescribed psychotropic medication for his adult son.
Presented with the evidence, the doctor conceded what he had done and said he understood how the certification could have misled his partner’s employer. He told Ahpra he wanted to help his partner and son, citing difficulties with attending medical appointments, running out of medication at inconvenient times or that it was difficult to get a doctor’s appointment. The doctor had prescribed only medication previously prescribed by other treating doctors for his family’s previously diagnosed conditions and had wanted to ensure that his family members received ongoing treatment.
The doctor said he felt a sense of obligation, and pressured, to provide the prescriptions and the certificate. He acknowledged that he had not properly assessed his partner or son, kept any clinical records, communicated with their usual treating practitioners and had not met the necessary permit requirements for prescribing drugs of dependence.
A tribunal found that the doctor had engaged in professional misconduct. It reprimanded and suspended him for six months and required him to undertake ethics education. When the doctor returned to practice, mentoring was required.
When hearing cases about medical practitioners prescribing for themselves or for those close to them, tribunals refer to the Board’s Code of conduct.
The doctors who come before the Board on this issue often explain their actions as wanting to help an unwell family member, but there are risks to the patient’s continuity of care and often harm has come to patients in cases like these.
The Code of conduct states:
Whenever possible, avoid providing medical care to anyone with whom you have a close personal relationship. In most cases, providing care to close friends, those you work with and family members is inappropriate because of the lack of objectivity, possible discontinuity of care, and risks to the patient and doctor. In particular, medical practitioners must not prescribe Schedule 8, psychotropic medication and/or drugs of dependence or perform elective surgery (such as cosmetic surgery), to anyone with whom they have a close personal relationship.
The Board publishes data each quarter on the medical profession. Data are broken down by state and territory and registration type, and for specialists by specialty and field of specialty practice. Visit our Statistics page to view the latest report.
The Board has approved the following:
The Medical Board of Australia and Ahpra can be contacted by phone on 1300 419 495.
For more information, see the Medical Board of Australia website and the Ahpra website.
Lodge an enquiry form through the website under Contact us at the bottom of every web page.
Mail correspondence can be addressed to: Dr Susan O'Dwyer, Chair, Medical Board of Australia, GPO Box 9958, Melbourne, VIC 3001.
Please note: Practitioners are responsible for keeping up to date with the Board’s expectations about their professional obligations. The Board publishes standards, codes and guidelines as well as alerts in its newsletter. If you unsubscribe from this newsletter you are still required to keep up to date with information published on the Board’s website.
Comments on the Board newsletter are welcome, send your feedback and suggestions to [email protected].
For registration enquiries or contact detail changes, call the Ahpra customer service team on 1300 419 495 (from within Australia).
