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In this month's issue:
Every day, most doctors in Australia apply their insight, judgement, skills and compassion to caring for their patients. Consistently and diligently, they provide high quality care. A major focus of our regulatory work is on building professionalism and strengthening the framework that supports doctors to get on with their important work.
Dr Susan O’Dwyer Chair, Medical Board of Australia
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 when a practitioner accessed another person’s medical records without consent or legitimate clinical need.
A health practitioner told Ahpra they had seen a medical practitioner access his ex-wife's medical record while working in a hospital emergency department.
Ahpra contacted the doctor’s employer, who audited their system and found he had accessed his ex-wife’s health records more than 30 times in the previous year.
The doctor initially told us he had never accessed his ex-wife’s records, then later admitted he had done so ‘once or twice’. He said the other access attempts must have been made by other people at the hospital using his account, which he said happened regularly.
Ahpra’s investigation confirmed that the doctor was subject to an active apprehended violence order (AVO), sought by his ex-wife eight months before the notification. The doctor only accessed the records after the AVO was in place.
Ahpra notified the police about the potential breach of the AVO and referred the case to a tribunal. The doctor resigned from the hospital after he was asked to explain why his employment should not be terminated.
During the tribunal hearing, the doctor admitted accessing his ex-wife’s record many times after they separated, without a clinical reason. The tribunal found the doctor had engaged in professional misconduct, that his actions were a serious abuse of trust and far below the standard required of a registered health practitioner. It suspended the doctors’ registration for three months and ordered him to have mentoring and complete education in ethical practice when he returned to practice.
The Australian Commonwealth and each state and territory have passed laws to regulate the collection, storage, use and disclosure of personal information. Sensitive personal information, such as health records, is subject to additional rules and safeguards. The Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles regulate health practitioners working in private hospitals and clinics. Corresponding state or territory laws regulate practitioners working in public health care settings. These laws have much in common and include rules that prohibit accessing personal information for a purpose that is not the primary purpose for which it was collected, a reasonable secondary purpose or another purpose authorised or required by a law.
This case study involves a clear case of a person’s sensitive health records being accessed for a purpose which is not lawful under Australian privacy legislation and for a purpose which is likely to constitute a criminal offence under state and territory criminal codes. The legal consequences of a registered health practitioner engaging in such behaviour may include occupational discipline, criminal prosecution and civil penalties and civil liability.
We’re very concerned about reports of financial harm to patients who have used a lot of their superannuation to fund dental and medical treatments.
We’ve issued a joint statement with Ahpra and the Dental Board of Australia – read it in full on the news page.
Compassionate release of superannuation (CRS) is administered by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and involves registered health practitioners. The scheme provides an important safety net for access to urgent healthcare for people who can’t otherwise afford it. But because it can also have significant long-term financial impacts on people’s superannuation outcomes, it needs to be used appropriately, with dentists and doctors clearly informing their patients about potential risks.
There has been a spike in approvals for the use of CRS for dental treatments in recent years.
We are deeply concerned by reports that some practitioners may be putting their personal financial gain ahead of their patients’ best interests. We are working with the ATO to identify any potential predatory practice.
You can read about your ethical obligations in the joint statement or in the Board’s Code of conduct.
New practice and advertising guidelines strengthen safeguards across the cosmetic procedures industry, with extra training mandated and greater protection for young people.
The new practice guidelines for non-surgical cosmetic procedures bring other health professions (including nurses and dentists) in line with the guidelines in place for doctors since 2023. They remind practitioners to put patient welfare first, with the prescriber remaining responsible for patient care.
New advertising guidelines will apply across all professions, including medicine. They protect young Australians by banning targeted advertising for people under the age of 18.
Advance copies of the Guidelines for practitioners who advertise higher risk non-surgical cosmetic procedures and the Guidelines for practitioners who perform non-surgical cosmetic procedures are published on the Ahpra website. Practice guidelines for medical practitioners in the cosmetic sector (2023) are on the Medical Board’s guidelines page.
While cosmetic procedures are out of scope for many practitioners, the guidelines will apply to all regulated professions, futureproofing future entrants to the lucrative cosmetic industry.
The advertising changes include a focus on higher risk procedures, requiring advertising to contain information about the practitioner performing the procedures, strengthening the ban on the use of testimonials from social media influencers and putting measures in place to stop the trivialisation or sexualisation of cosmetic procedures.
People under the age of 18 considering non-surgical cosmetic procedures will have a mandatory seven-day cooling off period between their first consultation and any procedures, while advertising aimed at under 18s will be totally banned.
The new practice guidelines require practitioners to have more than the foundational qualifications included in their initial training, before they perform non-surgical procedures like cosmetic injections. Further training or education will be necessary for anyone wanting to expand their scope of practice. Nurses will also be required to complete a set period of practice before expanding their scope to include non-surgical cosmetic procedures.
Social media drives demand in the cosmetic industry. Practitioners have until September 2025 to make sure their advertising complies with the new guidelines.
Earlier this year, Ahpra introduced a new operating system. This means that before you can renew your registration in August, you will need to move your Ahpra account into the portal.
The new system has multifactor authentication for data security, so part of the set-up process will be to link an authenticator app to your Ahpra portal. We recommend the Google Authenticator app which you can download for free from Apple’s App Store or the Google Play store.
We are encouraging all medical practitioners to set up their 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.
Receipts or tax invoices for payments made in the 2024-25 financial year (including registration fees) will be emailed to you directly – they won’t be available in the Ahpra portal.
Your receipt or tax invoice is sent shortly after your payment via email. Be sure to check both your inbox and spam/junk folder.
We’ll email your receipt or tax invoice from mid-June 2025. Be sure to check both your inbox and spam/junk folder.
If you haven’t received it by mid-July, please submit an online enquiry, and let us know you need a receipt or tax invoice for the 2024–25 financial year.
For payments made before July 2024, please submit an online enquiry and tell us which financial year(s) you need. We’ll email the relevant documents once we receive your request.
You will need to tell us the name of your CPD home when you renew your registration this year. We will also ask you to declare whether you met our CPD requirements for the 2024 calendar year.
We know that most doctors now have a CPD home. If you’re one of them, just keep doing your CPD.
If you’re newly registered, or you finished your specialist training or you didn’t have a CPD home in 2024, you need to join one now.
You need a CPD home and to complete 50 hours of CPD each calendar year unless you:
Specialist trainees in accredited specialist training programs are already meeting our CPD standard by participating in specialist training. Your college is your CPD home.
If you are absent from practice for six to 12 months, such as for parental or carer’s leave or serious illness, you can apply to your CPD home for an exemption or variation. You need to be a member of the CPD home before you can apply for an exemption. Ahpra and the Board can’t grant exemptions.
The CPD homes are published on the Board’s CPD webpage.
Latest data about specialist international medical graduates (SIMGs) going through the medical college assessment process are now available.
The report of 2024 SIMG Specialist pathway application and assessment data is published on the Medical Board website.
On the Specialist pathway, specialist medical colleges assess SIMGs aiming to practise as a specialist in their specialty in Australia. Each assessment is individualised, with all SIMGs required to satisfactorily complete a period of supervised practice and pass college assessments before they apply for specialist registration.
The report publishes data from all specialist medical colleges, reported against benchmarks set by the Medical Board of Australia. The data detail the number of SIMG applications for assessment and college assessment timeframes against the Board’s Standards: Specialist medical college assessment of specialist international medical graduates.
The data are reported in two sections – SIMGs who applied under the current standards and those who applied under the previous guidelines, for the SIMG assessment process.
One-page summaries highlighting data for each college are also published.
We have also started publishing data on the Expedited Specialist pathway. SIMGs on this fast-track pathway apply directly to the Medical Board for specialist registration. These data are collected by Ahpra and a summary report is published each month showing the number of applications and registrations by specialty and country. A more detailed, annual report with more data (de-identified) on applications and timeframes will be published soon.
The data reports are published on the Board’s IMG Specialist pathway page.
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:
Medical school programs of study
Ahpra and the National Boards are reviewing the Supervised practice framework and want to hear from you. How do you use the framework? What are its strengths and limitations? Is it working flexibly or is it too restrictive? Is there anything missing? Now is the time to have your say.
The Supervised practice framework sets out the Boards’ expectations and supports supervisees, supervisors and employers to understand what is necessary for effective supervised practice. It applies to doctors with a condition on their general and or specialist registration who require supervision, such as after a notification. It also applies to specialist international medical graduates (SIMGs) on the Expedited Specialist pathway. It does not apply to IMGs with limited or provisional registration, interns or specialist trainees.
The framework was published in 2022 and includes principles that underpin supervised practice and the levels of supervised practice.
The review was recommended by the Kruk review of regulatory settings and aims to make working in Australia simpler, quicker and cheaper for internationally qualified health practitioners, when this can be done safely.
The consultation is open until 31 July 2025. Visit Ahpra’s Current consultations page to read the detail and access a quick guide to the consultation. To share your feedback, use the link to the online form, or complete the submission template and email it back to us.
Ahpra and the National Scheme have announced their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anti-Racism Policy, informed by extensive consultation and the expertise of Professor Yin Paradies, a leading scholar in racism and cultural safety.
This policy has been developed by and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to create a safe, valued, and respectful environment within Ahpra and the National Boards.
It forms a critical step in enacting Ahpra and the National Scheme’s policy and legislative commitments to eliminating racism.
Racism towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples is persistent, harmful, and structurally embedded. This policy acknowledges those realities and provides clear mechanisms for preventing, addressing, and eliminating racism within Ahpra, the National Boards and committees. It establishes stronger reporting pathways and introduces the Racism-related Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-only Special Issues Committee (RATSISIC) to ensure culturally informed responses to racism.
The policy reflects the hard work and leadership of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anti-Racism Policy Working Group, chaired by Professor Carmen Parter, whose contributions were vital to its development.
You can also find a copy of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anti-Racism Policy on Ahpra’s Information Publication Scheme page. Scroll down the page to 'Ahpra, Ahpra Board and National Boards information' and click on the Ahpra tab. The policy is listed under ‘Corporate information’.
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).
