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In this month's issue:
Patient demand is no indicator of clinical need, especially for drugs of dependence. We know that most doctors prescribe responsibly and cautiously but there is a small number of practitioners whose prescribing is concerning. Our new guidance aims to support doctors to prescribe medicinal cannabis safely, after a thorough assessment and when other treatment options have failed. Prescribing business models and employment arrangements that put profit before patient safety don’t remove our individual responsibility to provide safe care.
Dr Susan O’Dwyer Chair, Medical Board of Australia
We’ve issued new guidance for practitioners involved in medicinal cannabis prescribing, because poor practice is leading to significant patient harm.
Doctors and nurse practitioners can legally prescribe medicinal cannabis when there is an evidence-supported clinical indication and when other treatments have not worked.
The new guidance, issued jointly by the Medical and Nursing and Midwifery Boards of Australia, reminds prescribers to be as careful and diligent when prescribing medicinal cannabis as they are when prescribing other drugs of dependence.
Doctors don’t prescribe opioids to every patient who asks for them, and medicinal cannabis is no different. Patient demand is no indicator of clinical need.
The guidance aims to support practitioners to provide safe care and addresses the Boards’ concern that profits are sometimes being prioritised over patient safety in this sector.
Business models have emerged that appear to use aggressive and sometimes misleading advertising that targets vulnerable people. Some of these business models rely on prescribing a single product or class of drug and use online questionnaires that coach patients to say ‘the right thing’ to justify prescribing medicinal cannabis.
The guidance warns of the inherent conflict of interest for practitioners working in an organisation that prescribes and dispenses a single medication. It also reminds doctors that their professional responsibilities go with them, wherever they work.
Safe prescribing of medicinal cannabis includes assessing patients thoroughly, formulating and implementing a management plan, facilitating coordination and continuity of care, maintaining medical records, only recommending treatments when there is an identified therapeutic need, ensuring medicinal cannabis is never a first line treatment and putting in place an exit strategy, formulated at the beginning.
The guidance on medicinal cannabis prescribing builds on existing regulatory guidance about safe care, including our code of conduct, Good medical practice, and telehealth guidelines.
Ahpra and the National Boards are also working with other regulators to understand prescribing patterns, to stay ahead of emerging trends.
Ahpra investigates practitioners with high rates of prescribing any scheduled medicine, including medicinal cannabis, even without a complaint. Being proactive and supportive, we’re inviting prescribing outliers to talk with us and reflect on their practice, and in many cases this approach is getting results.
Cases of poor practice in prescribing medicinal cannabis include:
The guidance on medicinal cannabis prescribing is published on the Medical Board’s Codes and guidelines page.
You’ll need to log in to the new Ahpra portal before you can renew your medical registration in August.
It takes a few steps to set up when you log in for the first time. The new system has multifactor authentication for data security, so the set-up process involves linking an authenticator app to your Ahpra portal. We recommend the Google Authenticator app which you can download free from Apple’s App Store or the Google Play store.
You can set up your portal now, before renewal opens in August.
Not sure how to do it? There is an online help centre with step-by-step guides, instruction videos and troubleshooting tips.
A 30 per cent rebate on annual registration renewal fees aims to bring financial relief to medical practitioners taking parental and other forms of leave on the grounds of a protected attribute.
Protected attributes include parental leave, disability or status as a carer.
The rebate is open to medical practitioners who take at least six continuous months of leave on the basis of a protected attribute and comes in response to the profession’s request for more flexible fee setting.
Doctors who have taken six continuous months leave on the basis of a protected attribute in the preceding 12 months can apply for the rebate when they renew their registration in August. They cannot apply for the rebate before the leave.
From this year, a medical practitioner with general and/or specialist registration who has taken six or more months of parental leave in the last 12 months can receive a rebate of more than $300 on the annual registration fee in 2025.
The leave rebate is the first in a range of measures Ahpra and the National Boards are introducing to make registration fees more equitable, flexible and responsive. We’re introducing it in time for this year’s renewal cycle, while we continue a wider review of fee policies that includes examining how to levy fees pro rata.
The review is expected to report by November 2025, with recommendations to take effect by 1 July 2026.
Ahpra has also started investigating ways to improve its processes for practitioners moving between practising and non-practising registration.
Read the Fee relief for parental leave and protected leave policy on the Ahpra website for more information.
The registration and renewal fees for the 2025/26 year will be published shortly on the Medical Board’s Fees page.
Health ministers have approved genetic pathology as a new field of specialty practice, within the existing specialty of pathology.
It is the first time in 15 years that a new specialty or field of specialty practice has been approved for inclusion on the List of specialties, fields of specialty practice and related specialist titles for the medical profession.
The path to recognition of a new medical specialty is rigorous, involving detailed assessment by the Australian Medical Council (AMC), public consultation, a recommendation by the Medical Board and approval by Ministerial Council.
The Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) proposed the recognition, demonstrating to the AMC, the Medical Board and health ministers that there is a public benefit in government intervention (regulation) and that existing arrangements or alternative non-regulatory options were unsatisfactory. Ministers approved genetic pathology as a new field of specialty practice in June 2025.
The AMC can now assess training programs in genetic pathology for accreditation, ahead of the Medical Board deciding whether to approve qualifications for the purposes of specialist registration.
When there is an approved qualification in genetic pathology, medical practitioners with this qualification can apply to the Board for specialist registration in genetic pathology. We will let you know when this is possible.
Only medical practitioners with specialist registration in genetic pathology can use the protected title ‘specialist genetic pathologist’.
The approval of the new specialty does not change existing work arrangements for specialist pathologists working in genetic pathology.
The List of specialties, fields of specialty practice and related specialist titles for the medical profession is published on the Medical Board’s Registration standards webpage.
There are vacancies for registered medical practitioners and community members on state and territory Medical Boards:
Applications close Sunday 24 August 2025.
To apply and for more information visit Ahpra’s Statutory appointments page.
Ahpra and the National Boards are reviewing the Supervised practice framework and are keen to hear from people who use it. The consultation is open until 31 July 2025.
The Supervised practice framework aims to support supervisees, supervisors and employers to understand what is necessary for effective supervised practice and sets out the Boards’ expectations.
The framework applies to two groups of doctors: those with a condition on their general and/or specialist registration requiring supervision, such as after a notification, and specialist international medical graduates (SIMGs) on the Expedited Specialist pathway. The framework does not apply to IMGs with limited or provisional registration, interns or specialist trainees.
The framework was first published in 2022 and is being reviewed under the findings of the Kruk review, which aimed to make working in Australia simpler, quicker and cheaper for internationally qualified health practitioners, when this can be done safely.
Visit Ahpra’s Current consultations page for a quick guide to the consultation.
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).
