Mandatory Reporting

Part 8, Division 2 of Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (NSW) ‘the National Law’ outlines the requirement for

• registered health practitioners
• employers of health practitioners
• education providers

to make a mandatory notification to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency if they have formed a reasonable belief that a registered health practitioner has behaved in a way that constitutes notifiable conduct.

Notifiable conduct by registered health practitioners is defined as:

• practising while intoxicated by alcohol or drugs
• sexual misconduct in the practice of the profession
• placing the public at risk of substantial harm because of an impairment (health issue), or
• placing the public at risk because of a significant departure from accepted professional standards.

The threshold for a person or organisation to make a mandatory notification is high. This means there must be ‘reasonable belief’ that a practitioner has behaved in a way that constitutes notifiable conduct and that their belief is based on reasonable grounds (known facts rather than anecdotal evidence).

If you are a registered health practitioner, employer or education provider and you are not sure whether you should raise a concern, you can contact the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) for detailed information about mandatory notifications.

Where the notification relates to a practitioner in NSW, AHPRA will forward it to the relevant NSW Council.

In NSW, according to the ‘National Law’ mandatory notifications are deemed to be a complaint. That means that the Council will forward the notification to the Health Care Complaints Commission to deal with it as a complaint. Please note that making a complaint to the Commission directly does not discharge the obligation to report notifiable conduct to AHPRA under the National Law.