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2023

Public consultation: Application for the recognition of Rural Generalist Medicine as a new field of specialty practice

Released: 17 October 2023
Closed: 12 December 2023

The Medical Board of Australia consulted on a joint application from the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners proposing that Rural generalist medicine be recognised under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, as a new field of specialty practice within the current specialty of General Practice. 

  • Consultation paper - Application for recognition of a new field of specialty practice - Rural Generalist Medicine PDF (331 KB)Word version (274 KB, DOCX)

ACRRM and RACGP application and associated documents

  1. Rural generalist medicine - Initial (Stage1) proposal and attachments for recognition of specialty practice (1.35 MB, PDF)
  2. Rural generalist medicine - additional information to support initial (Stage 1) proposal for recognition (7.70 MB, PDF)
  3. Rural generalist medicine - information to support the Stage 2 assessment process (6.29 MB, PDF)

Submissions will be published soon.


Public consultation – Review of the Criminal history registration standard and other work to improve public safety

Released: 3 August 2023
Closed:
29 September 2023

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) and the National Boards invited stakeholders to have their say as part of a review of the Criminal history registration standard (the criminal history standard).

The review, which was part of the work of our blueprint for reform to strengthen public safety in health regulation, which has a focus on sexual misconduct in healthcare, sought feedback on the current version of the criminal history standard, as well as comments on the future direction of other focus areas of work to improve public safety in health regulation including: 

  • our plan to better explain and publish more information about how we make decisions about criminal history and about professional misconduct by registered health practitioners
  • whether we can publish information about practitioners who are registered again after being removed from practice because of serious professional misconduct, and
  • more support for people who are affected by professional misconduct by registered health practitioners.

The consultation formed phase one of our work to review the Criminal history standard and ensured we received a range of views before a revised criminal history standard is developed and another opportunity is provided for stakeholders to comment (phase two).

Submissions will be published to the Ahpra website.


Public consultation – Two further possible changes to the National Boards’ English language skills requirements

Released: 16 August 2023
Closed: 13 September 2023

The National Boards and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) consulted on two further possible changes to the National Boards’ English language skills (ELS) requirements.The National Boards invited responses to questions about the two further possible changes including specific issues the Medical Board of Australia asked its stakeholders to consider. This consultation did not invite further feedback on proposed changes to the National Board ELS standards that have been previously consulted on.

This was a shorter streamlined consultation process designed to meet timeframes likely expected by Health Ministers. Feedback will be used to inform the final ELS standards National Boards submit to Health Ministers.

Background

From 13 July to 7 September 2022, Ahpra and the National Boards (except the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practice Board of Australia) publicly consulted on revised English language skills registration standards (the ELS standards). There was broad support from stakeholders for the proposed revised registration standards.

On 30 September 2022, the National Cabinet announced the Independent review of overseas health practitioner regulatory settings (the Kruk review), and in April 2023, the National Cabinet endorsed the interim review report. In line with recommendations within the interim report endorsed by the National Cabinet, the National Boards consulted on two further possible changes to their English language skills requirements: expanding the range of recognised countries and a possible change to one element of the English test results accepted by the National Boards.

Submissions will be published soon.


Public consultation: Proposal for the recognition of Genetic pathology as a new field of specialty practice

Released: 24 February 2023
Closed: 26 April 2023

The Medical Board of Australia has consulted on an application from the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia seeking recognition of Genetic pathology as a new field of specialty practice within the current specialty of Pathology.

Submissions will be published soon.


Public consultation - Guidelines: Telehealth consultations with patients

Released: 14 December 2022
Closed: 17 February 2023

The Medical Board of Australia consulted on proposed updated Guidelines: Telehealth consultations with patients. The updated guidelines are based on its existing Guidelines for technology-based consultations and an Information sheet - Inter-jurisdictional technology-based patient consultations.

Submissions received

The Board received approximately 770 submissions. Some stakeholders requested that their submission remain in confidence and some submissions have been published with the person’s name withheld.

Submissions are listed alphabetically below. Due to the number of submissions received, some submissions are available in combined PDFs. We have redacted contact details and potentially defamatory, sensitive or identifying comments from published submissions.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the submissions are those of the individuals or organisations who submitted them and their publication does not imply any acceptance of, or agreement with, these views by Ahpra or the Medical Board.

Submissions from organisations

Submissions from individuals


Public consultation – scheduled review of National scheme accreditation arrangements

Released: 14 December 2022
Closed: 14 February 2023

National Boards and Ahpra are reviewing the current accreditation arrangements for the national health practitioner regulatory scheme to prepare for the next period to mid-2029.

The current accreditation arrangements end on 30 June 2024 for all professions except paramedicine, which end on 30 November 2023. The National Boards and Ahpra intend to complete this scheduled review by May 2023 to inform National Boards’ decisions on arrangements for the next period and provide certainty for the future. The last scheduled review and public consultation on accreditation arrangements was in 2018.

This consultation is a key stage of the review and aims to confirm performance and progress on current accreditation priorities and will inform the priorities for the next period, including how progress in priority areas could be measured.


Public consultation: Draft revised registration standard for Granting general registration to Australian and New Zealand medical graduates on completion of intern training

Released: 17 November 2022
Closed: 25 January 2023

The Medical Board of Australia consulted on an updated registration standard in response to changes to intern training arising from the Australian Medical Council’s National Framework for Prevocational (PGY1 and PGY2) Medical Training to come into effect from 2024.

Submissions will be published in early 2023.

 
 
Page reviewed 4/03/2024