Revised Mandatory Reporting Guidelines Now in Effect

The revised Guidelines: Mandatory notifications about registered health practitioners and Guidelines: Mandatory notifications about registered students have now come into practice.

AHPRA and the 14 National Boards carried out a joint review of the Draft Revised Guidelines last year and conducted a public consultation process, to which the College made a submission.

Resources have been published and available on the Medical Board’ of Australia website in support of the revised guidelines:

• case studies
• expanded FAQs
• new videos including:
  • Mandatory notifications – a  psychologist perspective 
  • Mandatory notifications – a video for nurses and midwifes
  • Mandatory notifications – a video for students
• a podcast – A new look at mandatory notifications, and
• a myth busting guide.

The amendments changed the reporting obligations for treating practitioners by establishing a new, higher risk threshold for treating practitioners to report impairment, intoxication or practice that significantly departs from accepted standards. The changes aim to give practitioners confidence to seek help for health conditions if they need it, while continuing to prevent the risk of harm to the public.

The requirement to make a mandatory notification about a practitioner is different for different notifier groups. For that reason, the guidelines about practitioners have been structured according to notifier type (that is treating practitioner, non-treating practitioner, employer) so that relevant information for that notifier group is easier to find.

As there are only limited circumstances when a mandatory notification can be made about a student, separate guidelines for notifications about students and practitioners have been developed.

To view the Revised Guidelines, resources, case studies and FAQ’s visit https://www.ahpra.gov.au/Notifications/mandatorynotifications.aspx