The National Boards and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency have published the Guidelines: Mandatory notifications about registered health practitioners and Guidelines: Mandatory notifications about registered students which provide information about how to meet mandatory notification requirements.
The aim of the guidelines, which reflect amendments to the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (passed early in 2019), is to help practitioners, employers and education providers to understand who is required to make a mandatory notification about a registered health practitioner or registered student and under what circumstances.
They are due to take effect in early March 2020.
The changes being made to the process of mandatory notifications reflects a desire to further support health practitioners who report issues with their physical and mental health “that significantly departs from accepted standards”.
They accomplish by instituting a new, higher risk threshold for making a mandatory notification while still observing the intent of the mandatory notifications process which is to prevent the risk of harm to the public.
For more on the new system, go to Mandatory notifications: What you need to know
