Ahpra in numbers

Registration

825,720 health practitioners in 16 professions registered in Australia in 2020/21
- This includes 26,595 health practitioners on the pandemic sub-register
24,061 (+3%) more registrants in 2020/21 than in 2019/20 (up from 801,659)
84,607 applications for registration received across all professions; 41,548 applications from new graduates, including nearly 23,300 nursing applications
69,571 domestic and international criminal history checks made
- 2,723 (3.9%) of these found disclosable court outcomes; applicants granted registration when the nature of their disclosable court outcome had little relevance to their ability to practise safely and competently
99.6% of registrants renewed and completed their registration online
94.8% of registrants completed an online workforce survey at renewal
84,232 (+3.9%) new applications for registration finalised
738,659 practitioners renewed their registration

The National Scheme accredited over 860 approved programs of study, delivered by more than 130 education providers
189,786 students studying to be health practitioners through an approved program of study or clinical training program in 2020/21

10,147 notifications about 7,858 health practitioners received by Ahpra in 2020/21
Nationally 13,483 practitioners had 17,846 notifications made about them, (including complaints managed by the Health Professional Councils Authority in NSW and the Office of the Health Ombudsman in Queensland)
1.6% of all registered health practitioners were the subject of a notification
0.9% fewer notifications than in 2019/20 and 8.7% more than in 2018/19
6,800 (67.0%) notifications received were about a single concern, 2,149 notifications (21.2%) were about two concerns, and 1,198 (11.8%) about three or more concerns
Of the 7,858 practitioners who had a notification made about them in 2020/21, 4,839 practitioners (61.6%) hadn’t had a notification before and 3,019 (38.4%) had had a notification in previous reporting years
568 notifications involving a possible failure to maintain appropriate professional boundaries
National Boards took immediate (interim) action 597 times to restrict or suspend the registration of a practitioner
1,266 mandatory notifications received, 14.4% more than in 2019/20
10,121 notifications closed by Ahpra in 2020/21, 8.9% more than in 2019/20

3,516 practitioners monitored to ensure health, performance and/or conduct requirements were being met during the year

16 successful prosecutions in the courts; all resulted in findings of guilt against the defendant on one or more charges
121 matters about professional misconduct determined by independent tribunals; 96.7% resulted in disciplinary action
343 complaints made about title protection
386 complaints about advertising made

In 2020/21, 693 appointments made:
- 52 Ministerial appointments of National Board members
- 312 National Board appointments of national committee and panel members
- 108 Ministerial appointments of state, territory or regional board members
- 221 National Board appointments of state, territory and regional committee members

935 calls answered and 222 web enquiries responded to every business day by our Customer Service team
316 media enquiries responded to
248 Freedom of Information applications finalised

The Ahpra website viewed over 29 million times
Our social media posts seen over 3 million times and received 109,135 interactions (likes, shares and comments); followers 10,559 on Twitter, 89,839 on LinkedIn and 1,939 on Instagram and 35,528 Facebook likes
More than 2.5 million searches made of the Register of practitioners
633 news items, including 51 media releases, published
103 court and tribunal summaries published
54 National Board newsletters, with a median open rate of 63.7%, and three issues of the Ahpra Report for stakeholders published
23 episodes of our Taking care podcast published

For more information about how we have performed, and to download our latest annual report, see the 2020/21 annual report.