21 July 2009

In March 2008 the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to a national registration and accreditation scheme for health professionals. The National Registration and Accreditation Implementation Project (NRAIP) recently released an exposure draft Bill. Submissions closed on Friday, 17 July 2009.

The NSW Health Care Complaints Commission’s submission is based on the position in NSW that the state will not adopt the system for complaints handling as outlined in the exposure draft of bill B, which the Commission believes is not in the public interest. NSW will implement its own system that will continue and improve the present process in NSW where the investigation and prosecution of complaints is carried out by the Commission in consultation with the health registration boards.

The Commission’s submission is made with the intent of improving the proposed system within the limits of its general structure. It also makes suggestions to broaden certain draft clauses in anticipation that the national boards will be required to work with the Health Care Complaints Commission under a different model in NSW.

More information about the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for the Health Professions