|
In 2008, the Council of Australian Governments agreed to establish a national registration scheme for health practitioners by 1 July 2010.
In 2009, the NSW Parliament passed the Health Practitioner Regulation (Adoption of National Law) Act 2009. This legislation gives effect in NSW to the National Registration Scheme for health practitioners that starts on 1 July 2010.
In June 2010, the NSW Parliament passed the Health Practitioner Regulation Amendment Act 2010. This Act amends a variety of health related legislation in NSW to complement the National Registration Scheme. In particular, it provides for the Health Care Complaints Commission to retain its current role and functions, especially the investigation and prosecution of serious complaints about health practitioners.
Under the National Registration Scheme, there are National Registration Boards for ten health professions, including medical practitioners, nurses, and dentists. All National Boards are administratively supported by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).
In NSW, most National Boards have councils, which act in co-regulation with the Health Care Complaints Commission in relation to the handling of complaints about registered health practitioners.
Dental technicians and optical dispensers are no longer registered health practitioners under the national scheme. To reflect this change, the Code of Conduct for unregistered health practitioners has been amended to apply to these professions as from 1 July 2010. The Health Care Complaints Commission retains its power to deal with complaints about unregistered health practitioners.
The new scheme also introduces mandatory reporting for all registered health professionals across Australia.
How does the National Registration Scheme work?
Under the scheme, a health practitioner registered in one state is also registered nationally and entitled to practise anywhere in Australia.
Outside NSW, complaint management under the National Law provides for the health professional boards to investigate and prosecute complaints before disciplinary bodies. Other than in NSW, there is no independent investigator or prosecutor.
The NSW complaints system
In NSW however, the co-regulatory system between the health professional boards and the independent Health Care Complaints Commission will remain intact. The decision to keep the system acknowledges that ‘the changes made to the New South Wales system over the last 20 years have consistently focused on enhancing the public accountability of health service providers and improving the capacity of the complaints system to protect the public’. (Second Reading Speech)
All complaints about health practitioners and health organisations will be notified to the Health Care Complaints Commission, even where the complaint is made to a registration board or council.
The Health Care Complaints Act requires that in consultation with the relevant health professional council, the Commission assesses how to most appropriately deal with a complaint. The Commission has a broad range of options, including alternative dispute resolution.
Where there appears to be a serious issue of public health or safety, a significant question as to the appropriate care or treatment, or there appears to be gross negligence or grounds for disciplinary proceedings, the Commission must investigate the complaint.
Where the Commission investigation finds evidence that a registered health practitioner engaged in unsatisfactory professional conduct or professional misconduct, it will refer the complaint to its Director of Proceedings.
The Director of Proceedings independently determines whether to prosecute the case and, if so, in which forum. Complaints about unsatisfactory professional conduct will usually be prosecuted before a Professional Standards Committee, while more serious complaints about professional misconduct will be heard by a Tribunal.
More information on the Commission’s complaints process.
What changes in NSW?
The NSW legislation dealing with complaint handling adopts the provisions of the Medical Practice Act 1992 and extend a number of reforms within that Act to other registered health practitioners in NSW. This means that transparency in Professional Standards Committee processes will be extended to all Professional Standards Committees. This includes:
- Committees generally being open to the public
- Committee decisions generally being publicly available
- Chairpersons of Committees being legally qualified.
- Legal representation being allowed in Committee hearings.
In addition, the Commission is required to consider the complaint history of health practitioners when dealing with complaints and to investigate and prosecute multiple complaints about the same practitioner together.
The current definitions for unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct will remain applicable in NSW. These differ from definitions used under the National Law in other jurisdictions.
In NSW, unsatisfactory professional conduct is “any conduct that demonstrates that the knowledge, skill or judgment possessed; or care exercised, by the practitioner in the practice of medicine is significantly below the standard reasonably expected of a practitioner of an equivalent level of training or experience.”
Professional misconduct is defined as unsatisfactory professional conduct “of a sufficiently serious nature to justify suspension of the practitioner from practising medicine or the removal of the practitioner’s name from the Register”.
In relation to the health and performance assessment programmes in place for medical practitioners and nurses, these are continued by the NSW councils, and are anticipated to extend to all other health professions as of July 2010.
Mandatory reporting of notifiable conduct applies to all registered health practitioners, as well as employers and education providers.
More information
For more information, contact the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission on 1800 043 159 (toll free in NSW). The Commission also offers information sessions. To book a session, use our online presentation booking form.
Further links
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agencyadministratively supports the National Registration Boards, and offers a range of information on its website, including links to the websites of all National Boards.
|