Medical regulation at work: Protecting the public in 2017/18

14 Feb 2019

A profession-specific annual report summary that highlights the work of the Medical Board of Australia over the year to 30 June 2018 has now been published.

The report draws on data from 2017/18 annual report by AHPRA and the National Boards. This information provides a snapshot of the profession as at 30 June 2018, and includes the number of applications for registration, audit outcomes and segmentation of the registrant base by gender, age, registration type, specialty and principal place of practice. Notifications information includes the number of complaints or concerns received, matters opened and closed during the year, types of complaint, monitoring and compliance and matters involving immediate action.

Insights into the profession include:

• 115,113 medical practitioners were registered in 2017/18.
• 17,121 new applications for registration were received.
• Medical practitioners make up 16.4% of all registered health practitioners in Australia.
• The number of registered medical practitioners increased by 3.6% from 2016/17.
• 57.3% are men; 42.7% medical practitioners are women.
• New South Wales was the principal place of practice for most medical practitioners (35,303).
• Northern Territory (NT) was home to the smallest number of medical practitioners (1,346).
• The age bracket with the largest number of medical practitioners was 30–34 (16,605).
• 821 medical practitioners were under 25 years of age.
• 1,333 medical practitioners were aged 80 or over.
• There was a 1.4% increase from the previous year in the number of medical practitioners moving to non-practising registration.
• The number of medical practitioners who hold limited registration increased slightly.
• 3,749 notifications (complaints or concerns) were lodged with AHPRA about medical practitioners.
• AHPRA closed 3,703 notifications about medical practitioners in 2017/18. This represents 52.1% of all matters closed across 14 professions in the National Scheme.
• 1,692 cases were being actively monitored by AHPRA at 30 June 2018 for compliance with conditions placed on medical practitioners’ registration.
• Immediate action was taken by the Board on 148 matters relating to medical practitioners in 2017/18.
• 176 complaints were made about possible statutory offences by medical practitioners or medical services during the year. Almost two-thirds of the new matters related to title and practice protection.

To download this report or to view the main 2017/18 annual report, visit the AHPRA website.

In January and February 2019, AHPRA and the National Boards are publishing summaries that break down 2017/18 data for 13 other boards in the National Scheme.

For more information

• Visit the AHPRA website
• Lodge an online enquiry form
• For registration enquiries: 1300 419 495 (within Australia) +61 3 9275 9009 (overseas callers)
• For media enquiries: (03) 8708 9200