April 2022

• Chair’s message 
• Medical Board of Australia news
  • CPD in 2023
    • What are my CPD options for 2023? 
  • International medical graduate supervision
    • Information for hospitals and IMGs in hospital-based positions
  • Medical Board vacancies 
    • Interested in joining a state medical board?
  • Accreditation
    • Providing high quality education and training 
• Consultation
  • Consultation on CPD homes accreditation criteria open for feedback
• News and alerts
  • Were you on the 2020 pandemic sub-register? Check your registration status
  • New podcasts – cosmetic surgery, and LGBTIQA+ communities’ experience with healthcare 
  • Senate Committee tables its report
• Contacting the Board

Chair’s message 

New CPD arrangements will start in January but anyone without a CPD home can continue to do CPD in 2023 under the current standard. There’s more detail in this Update. And a reminder in case you missed our thought-provoking recent discussions on the Taking care podcasts about cosmetic surgery, the care of patients experiencing family violence, and LGBTIQA+ communities’ experience with healthcare. 

Dr Anne Tonkin
Chair, Medical Board of Australia

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Medical Board of Australia news

CPD in 2023 

What are my CPD options for 2023? 

The new CPD standard takes effect in January 2023. Your choice of CPD in 2023 depends on whether or not you have a CPD home and on the type of registration you have. 

CPD homes will be accredited in 2022 and 2023 to support a 1 January 2024 start for all practitioners needing a CPD home. 

• If you can, join a CPD home by January 2023.
• In 2023, all doctors need to do CPD:
  • if you have a CPD home, you need to meet the CPD requirements set by the home
  • if you don’t have a CPD home by January 2023, you need to meet the existing CPD standard in 2023 and get a CPD home by January 2024. 

Here’s a quick guide to your options.

 If you are a specialist, you can:

• do your specialist college CPD program OR
• join another CPD home that is relevant to your scope of practice, and meet its CPD requirements OR
• meet the MBA 2016 registration standard by doing your own CPD program that meets the CPD requirements of your relevant specialist college.

Doctors in training

If you are an intern or PGY2, you can

• participate in the supervised training and education programs associated with your position. No extra CPD is required.

If you are a prevocational or unaccredited trainee (PGY3 +), you can

• join a CPD home and meet its CPD requirements OR
• keep doing what you’re doing until January 2024 – i.e., meet the MBA 2016 registration standard by participating in the supervised training and education programs associated with your position.

If you are an accredited specialist trainee, you can

• participate in your specialist training program. No extra CPD is required. 

If you are a doctor with general registration only (and not in training), you can:

• join a CPD home and meet its CPD requirements OR
• keep doing what you’re doing until January 2024 – i.e., meet the MBA 2016 registration standard by doing 50 hours of CPD that includes at least one practice-based reflective element.

If you are an international medical graduate with limited registration, you can:

• join a CPD home and meet its CPD requirements OR
• keep doing what you’re doing until January 2024 – i.e., meet the MBA 2016 registration standard by completing CPD activities as agreed in your Board-approved supervision plan and work performance report. If the agreed CPD activities total less than 50 hours, you must complete a total of 50 hours of CPD.

Note: 

• If you are registered for less than four weeks, you do not need to do CPD. 
• If you are a specialist IMG under college assessment, your CPD home will be your assessing college.

If you are an international medical graduate with provisional registration (not in an accredited intern position), you can:

• join a CPD home and meet its CPD requirements OR
• keep doing what you’re doing until January 2024 – i.e., meet the MBA 2016 registration standard by completing CPD activities as agreed in your Board-approved supervision plan and work performance report. If the agreed CPD activities total less than 50 hours, you must complete a total of 50 hours of CPD.

If you are an international medical graduate with provisional registration (in an accredited intern position), you can:

• participate in the supervised training and education programs associated with your position. No extra CPD is required.

If you have non-practising registration:

• you don’t have to do any CPD.

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International medical graduate supervision

Information for hospitals and IMGs in hospital-based positions

Health services that employ international medical graduates (IMGs) in hospital-based positions might be interested in new guidance about alternative supervision options.

The Board’s Guidelines – Supervised practice for international medical graduates apply to all IMGs with limited or provisional registration. While the supervision levels in these guidelines reflect a general practice context, they allow hospitals employing IMGs to propose alternative supervision arrangements that reflect existing hospital supervision structures and protocols.

The new guidance – Information sheet – International medical graduate supervision in hospital-based positions – does not change the requirements in the guidelines. It provides a framework for hospitals to describe Level 1 or 2 supervision in their organisation, so they can more easily propose alternative supervision arrangements for IMGs in hospital-based positions. Each IMG must still have their supervision arrangements approved by the Board.  

The Board welcomes feedback on the information sheet, which it will review within 12 months.

The information sheet and a revised Supervised practice plan and principal supervisor's agreement for IMGs with limited or provisional registration SPPA-30 are available on the IMG supervision page on the Board’s website.

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Medical Board vacancies 

Interested in joining a state medical board?

Applications are open for medical practitioners and community members to fill vacancies on two medical boards.

Queensland 

• four practitioner members including the position of Chair
• four community members 

Tasmania

• one practitioner member 
• one community member 

Applications close Sunday 22 May 2022. More information is on Ahpra’s Statutory appointments page.

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Accreditation

Providing high quality education and training

The Medical Board of Australia has approved the following:

Specialist medical college program of study

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Consultation

Consultation on CPD homes accreditation criteria open for feedback

CPD homes will provide CPD programs, support and guidance to doctors from 2023.

The Australian Medical Council (AMC) is consulting on proposed criteria that it will use to accredit CPD homes. Practitioners and organisations are invited to provide feedback to the AMC on the criteria by 1 June 2022. The consultation paper is available on the AMC’s website. Expressions of interest from organisations interested in applying to become a CPD home are also invited. 

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News and alerts

Were you on the 2020 sub-register? Check your registration status

The Board thanks medical practitioners who were on the 2020 pandemic response sub-register (now closed) and reminds them to check their registration status. 

Practitioners on the 2020 sub-register had to do one of the following before 5 April 2022:

• opt in to extend their temporary registration, or
• formally apply for registration on the main register (Register of practitioners) using a transition pathway.

If you had non-practising registration before being on the 2020 sub-register you have been returned to that registration type on the main register unless you have applied for general registration.

Practitioners who did nothing and allowed their registration to expire on 5 April 2022 are no longer registered.

If you opted in

If you opted in to extend your temporary registration it now expires at midnight on 21 September 2022, and you can practise to the full scope of your registration until that date. You appear on the register as being a practitioner on the 2021 pandemic response sub-register. As of 6 April 2022, there are 20,730 practitioners from 12 professions on the 2021 sub-register.

If you chose the transition pathway

If you applied for registration on the main register and your application is still being assessed by Ahpra, your temporary registration will remain in effect and will be shown on the register until the application is decided and your details are updated. Your registration will continue to be limited to practice for the COVID-19 response, until you are advised about the outcome of your application.

Need more information?

More information is included in a news item on the Board’s website.

If you were on the 2020 sub-register and have a question about your registration, contact pandemicregister@ahpra.gov.au.  

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New podcasts – cosmetic surgery, and LGBTIQA+ communities’ experience with healthcare

Ahpra releases fortnightly episodes of the Taking care podcast, discussing current topics and the latest issues affecting safe healthcare in Australia. You can access these on the Ahpra website or listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and by searching ‘Taking care’ in your podcast player. Latest episodes: 

• What needs to change to make cosmetic surgery safer for patients? A consumer shares her good and bad surgery experiences, and consumer advocates Maddison Johnstone and Michael Fraser join CHOICE CEO Alan Kirkland to share some of the red flags for consumers and contemplate what a safer system could look like. Alan Kirkland is on a panel for the independent review into cosmetic surgery commissioned by Ahpra and the Medical Board of Australia. More information about the review is on the Ahpra website.
• Two voices from LGBTIQA+ communities – In this episode, we hear stories of people in LGBTIQA+ communities and their experiences and challenges accessing healthcare. They offer their advice for others experiencing the same and about what practitioners can do to better support these communities. 

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Senate Committee tables its report

The Senate Community Affairs Reference Committee has tabled its report on the inquiry into the Administration of registration and notifications by Ahpra and related entities under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law.

We actively engaged with the inquiry, with the Chair of the Board and representatives of Ahpra, the Agency Management Committee and Community Reference Group all appearing. There were public submissions and stakeholder appearances.

We will consider the recommendations directed to Ahpra and National Boards and contribute to the Australian Government response, as requested.

The report is available on the Inquiry web page.

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Contacting the Board

• The Medical Board of Australia and Ahpra can be contacted by phone on 1300 419 495.
• For more information, see the Medical Board of Australia website and the Ahpra website.
• Lodge an enquiry form through the website under Contact us at the bottom of every web page.
• Mail correspondence can be addressed to: Dr Anne Tonkin, Chair, Medical Board of Australia, GPO Box 9958, Melbourne, VIC 3001.

More information

Please note: Practitioners are responsible for keeping up to date with the Board’s expectations about their professional obligations. The Board publishes standards, codes and guidelines as well as alerts in its newsletter. If you unsubscribe from this newsletter you are still required to keep up to date with information published on the Board’s website.

Comment on the Board newsletter is welcome and should be sent to newsletters@ahpra.gov.au.

For registration enquiries or contact detail changes, call the Ahpra customer service team on 1300 419 495 (from within Australia).

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