August 2022

Update Medical Board of Australia

Chair’s message
Medical Board of Australia news
Contacting the Board

Chair’s message

CPD is changing to improve the quality and relevance of our lifelong learning. By 2024, all doctors will have a CPD home and be doing CPD that meets revised requirements. Specialists doing CPD via their specialist college will be able to meet requirements in 2023 because all specialist colleges will be CPD homes. There’s time in 2023 for other doctors to find a CPD home that meets their learning needs. We’ve created a CPD hub on our website so you can access the CPD information you need. There is no change to CPD declarations at registration renewal this year. And a reminder: registration renewal for most doctors is open now.

Dr Anne Tonkin
Chair, Medical Board of Australia

↑ Back to top

Medical Board of Australia news

Medical Training Survey

The Medical Training Survey is on … now!

The Medical Training Survey (MTS) is open now! If you’re a doctor in training, now is the time to shape training for tomorrow’s doctors by doing the MTS. Your feedback helps build the evidence base used across the sector to keep improving training.

Do the MTS when you renew your registration. If you’re an intern or an international medical graduate (IMG), check your email inbox for your invitation to do the MTS.

This year, we are again asking trainees about the impact of COVID-19 on training.

Three years’ MTS data have revealed serious fault lines in the culture of medicine. We listened to the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association (AIDA) and this year are asking trainees specifically about racism to understand if they have experienced and/or witnessed it. There’s also a new question on barriers to reporting bullying, harassment, discrimination and racism, to generate specific data that can inform actions to address this problem.

Visit the MTS website to see how stakeholders are using the data to drive positive change in medical training.

Check out our social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn) to learn why doctors in training are doing the MTS. Here’s a preview:

the MTS yields rich year on year data about what is improving and where
we know stakeholders are making tangible improvements – driven directly by MTS data
we need to keep doing the MTS each year to improve training for future doctors.

↑ Back to top

Registration renewal

Renew your registration online now

You can apply online now to renew your medical registration (general, specialist and non-practising registration). If you have given Ahpra your email address, we have emailed the first reminder. Renewal is online only. Payments can be made by credit or debit card.

The 2022/23 registration fee is $860, and $898 in NSW. More information is on the Ahpra website.

Information and FAQs for medical practitioners are on the Registration renewal page.

Doctors in training with general registration can do the Medical Training Survey (MTS) when they renew. Follow the MTS survey link after the workforce survey. Interns and IMGs, please follow the MTS link in our email to you.

Registration renewal due dates

Registration renewal for medical practitioners with general, specialist and non-practising registration is due by 30 September 2022. A late payment fee is due on applications received in October.

If you do not apply to renew your registration by the end of October, your name will be removed from the register of medical practitioners. Your registration will lapse, and you will not be able to practise medicine in Australia. A ‘fast-track’ application can be made, but you cannot practise until it is processed and the national register is updated. This can take time and will affect your ability to practise medicine in the meantime.

Download your registration certificate and tax invoice

Your registration details will be updated on the Register of practitioners when your renewal application is finalised. The online register is updated every day and is the safest and most timely way to check your registration details.

If you need a copy of your registration certificate or to access your renewal tax invoice, you can print them from the Ahpra online portal after your renewal has been completed.

↑ Back to top

CPD

How – and when – do CPD changes affect you?

Continuing professional development (CPD) for doctors is changing to support high quality, lifelong evidence-based learning. By 2024, all doctors will need a CPD home. In 2023, there is flexibility.

All specialist medical colleges will be CPD homes by January 2023, so all specialists in colleges will automatically have a CPD home from January 2023 and will meet updated CPD requirements.

Doctors doing CPD in other accredited CPD homes in 2023 will meet the new CPD requirements.

Other doctors can just keep meeting the current CPD standard in 2023 – and keep an eye out for a CPD home that meets your learning needs before January 2024.

When you renew your medical registration in 2022, you will need to make the usual declaration about whether you’ve met the existing CPD standard over the last 12 months. You don’t need a CPD home when you renew in 2022.

There’s plenty of time – until January 2024 – for all doctors to find a CPD home that meets their needs and provides education relevant to their scope of practice.

To help everyone sort out what they need to do and when, we’ve created a CPD hub on our website. It includes a checklist that sets out what changes apply and when to each group of doctors, information on professional development plans, CPD homes, applying to be a CPD home and other background information.

As a reminder, there are three core changes in the new CPD requirements:

CPD homes for all doctors (by 2024) – for quality assurance.
Professional development plans for all doctors – for CPD with purpose.
Different types of CPD – for CPD with value.

Approved CPD requirements for doctors are detailed in the revised CPD registration standard. Visit our CPD hub on the Medical Board website for more.

↑ Back to top

Quarterly registration data

Latest registration data published

The Board publishes data each quarter on the medical profession. Data are broken down by state and territory, registration type and for specialists, by specialty and field of specialty practice. The latest report is available on our website under Statistics on the News page.

↑ Back to top

Consultation

English language skills – consultation on standard closes soon

Our consultation on possible updates to the English language skills registration standard closes soon.

English language standards apply to all doctors applying for registration in Australia. We’re reviewing the standard that applies to doctors applying for registration for the first time. The standard is consistent across all professions in the National Scheme, so all National Boards (except the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practice Board of Australia) are involved in this consultation.

You can share your feedback on the English language skills registration standard through the online consultation survey or email written submissions to ahpra.consultation@ahpra.gov.au. There is a Word document submission template.

The consultation closes on 7 September 2022.

The consultation paper and more information is available on the Board’s Consultation page.

↑ Back to top

News and alerts

New Resources web hub

A new hub on the Ahpra website makes it easier to find helpful resources.

The Resources hub aims to support professional practice and help patients make safer health choices.

The hub includes information on requirements for advertising, social media, cosmetics, supervised practice and more. We’ve clustered information for practitioners and the public according to useful topics, to make it easier to find.

↑ Back to top

Medical regulation at work

Latest tribunal decisions published

There are important lessons in tribunal decisions about registered medical practitioners. The Medical Board of Australia refers the most serious concerns about medical practitioners to tribunals in each state and territory. Recently published decisions include:

the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has reprimanded and suspended a medical practitioner for falsely prescribing oxycodone and misleading the Medical Council of New South Wales (Medical Board of Australia v Lodhi)
the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has disqualified a medical practitioner from applying for registration as a health practitioner for four years for conduct that was sexualised and/or inappropriate (Medical Board of Australia v Datta).

Publication of panel, court and tribunal decisions

Ahpra, on behalf of the 15 National Boards, publishes a record of panel, court and tribunal decisions about registered health practitioners.

When investigating a notification, the Board may refer a medical practitioner to a health panel hearing, or a performance and professional standards panel hearing. Under the National Law, panel hearings are not open to the public. Ahpra publishes a record of panel hearing decisions made since July 2010. Practitioners’ names are not published, consistent with the National Law.

Summaries of tribunal and court cases are published on the Court and tribunal decisions page of the Ahpra website. The Board and Ahpra sometimes choose not to publish summaries, for example about cases involving practitioners with impairment.

In New South Wales and Queensland, different arrangements are in place. More information is available on Ahpra’s website on the Concerned about a practitioner? page.

↑ Back to top

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).

↑ Back to top