Ombudsman invites submissions on her investigation into delay and procedural safeguards for practitioners who are subject to immediate action

The Ombudsman is investigating how matters involving health practitioners subject to immediate action are handled by Ahpra and the National Boards, including if existing policies and procedures enable timely and procedurally fair outcomes. The issues being investigated include:

• whether Ahpra’s current policies and procedures allow for the timely: 

  - use of immediate action 

  - investigation of health practitioners subject to immediate action 

• whether there are sufficient procedural safeguards for health practitioners subject to immediate action.

Current Ahpra and National Board processes (and associated policies) that the investigation is considering include:

• identification of a matter that may meet the threshold for immediate action

• consideration of whether immediate action is necessary, including the ongoing management of a matter when immediate action is being considered 

• ongoing management of a matter after immediate action is taken, including in relation to communication 

• a matter’s outcome when a practitioner is subject to immediate action, including referral to a Tribunal

• review processes in relation to decisions to take immediate action.

The investigation will not consider immediate action processes undertaken by the Office of the Health Ombudsman in Queensland (the OHO) and bodies in New South Wales including the Health Professional Councils Authority (HPCA) and Health Professional Councils.*

The investigation is considering a range of information to inform its findings, including available research, Ahpra’s notifications-related data, our office’s complaints data, targeted engagement with affected individuals and organisations, and submissions received through this public consultation process.

* The Ombudsman’s jurisdiction does not extend to considering the actions and decisions of the OHO or the HPCA.

Immediate action is defined, and its requirements outlined, in the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (the National Law). In summary, immediate action refers to a National Board’s decision to take action regarding a health practitioner’s registration if it reasonably believes that a health practitioner poses a serious risk to the public, and/or it is in the public interest to do so.* Action may include, for example, placing conditions on a practitioner’s registration or suspending the practitioner’s registration.

* Section 156 of the National Law details the circumstances in which immediate action can be taken.

The Ombudsman champions fairness by taking every complaint seriously and shining a light on systemic issues to effect positive change. 

The Ombudsman’s office provides a free and independent complaint handling service that is open to all, including the public, health practitioners, education providers, students and specialist medical trainees. 

The office assists with complaints about bodies in the National Scheme, including Ahpra, the 15 National Boards, accreditation authorities and specialist medical colleges. This includes considering complaints about how Ahpra and the National Boards manage notifications and immediate action-related processes. Put generally, the Ombudsman’s role is to consider whether Ahpra and the National Boards’ actions and decisions are in line with the relevant legislation, policies and procedures.

The Ombudsman’s routine monitoring activities identified that practitioners had increasingly raised issues with her office about immediate action being taken. In 2023–24 the office recorded 84 issues related to immediate action being taken across complaints about the notifications process, compared to 51 issues in 2022–23, 45 issues in 2021–22 and 24 issues in 2020–21.

Health practitioners raised a range of concerns with the Ombudsman related to immediate action processes. A common theme identified by the Ombudsman’s office was practitioners expressing frustration with the time taken to receive an outcome for the matter that led to immediate action being taken, and a lack of communication about its progress.

Your submission will help us understand more about how immediate action-related processes are working, and whether improvements are needed.

Submissions will be collected, analysed and interpreted by the Ombudsman and her Policy and communications team. This may include summarising themes found in the submissions received.

Our office is dedicated to ensuring appropriate protection of personal information. We will not disclose your personal information without your consent, except where required to do so by law. We collect and handle the information provided as part of this consultation in line with relevant legislation and our privacy policy.

Participation in this consultation is voluntary and consent for the collection and use of information contained in submissions is taken to have been provided when a submission is received.

Your submission will not be published and we will not share your submission with Ahpra or the National Boards. 

We may request your consent to reproduce information contained in your submission as part of the Ombudsman’s final report. Identifying information will only be published if and once your consent has been provided. Alternatively, the information will be deidentified prior to publication.

For any questions regarding the investigation or submissions process, or to request alternative arrangements to provide a submission, please contact us via email at <submission@nhpo.gov.au> or call our office on 1300 795 265. 

If you choose to share your contact details with us, we may contact you to discuss your submission further.

We will also provide you with an update when the investigation’s report is published, and if relevant, at other key progress points.

You are welcome to make a complaint to our office about how Ahpra or a National Board handled your matter. 

Learn more about how to make a complaint

Please remember that submissions we receive as part of this investigation will not be considered as complaints to the Ombudsman or to the National Health Practitioner Privacy Commissioner. This investigation will not come to specific findings on individual complaints.