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It is our duty to prevent harm. If we fail to do this, the consequences can be devastating, and we break the trust of the public and practitioners – especially where the risk is evident.
Our role as the regulator of registered health practitioners is to deal with professional misconduct – we must be able to identify emerging behaviours and act swiftly to prevent harm to others. Preventing harm in all forms – physical, psychological, sexual, discriminatory and institutional – is the essence of safety and our core purpose. Our ability to protect people relies on systemic trust, effective policy and a health system that delivers public value.
Rapidly evolving technologies facilitate and expedite new ways of delivering health services. Digital health options can provide significant benefits, offering faster, easier and greater access, but if used erroneously, enable dangerous practices and expose gaps in regulation. Opportunities for financial gain can also give rise to concerning behaviours that, if left unchecked, can proliferate harm.
Proactive and responsive intervention requires a spectrum of tactics – education to inform decision making and correct behaviour, sanctions to prevent further harm and strong action to demonstrate the consequences of breaking the code or the law.
We also know some aspects of regulation are distressing for those involved. The notification system requires a necessary level of assessment and scrutiny to inform decision making and protect it from being manipulated. While this is key to robust regulation, we must ensure the process is timely, empathetic and transparent.
To prevent harm across the National Scheme and the health system, our focus is twofold:
Peoples’ experiences of the health and regulatory systems are safe, free from preventable harm.
Where there is evidence of harm, we intervene early and firmly to stop it. We use a range of data sources to detect, understand and quantify risks. Working with stakeholders across the system, we apply these insights to influence practitioner behaviour, raise awareness, deter harmful practices and contribute to policy and legislation.
We understand the effects of our processes and design the regulatory system to ensure the safety of practitioners and notifiers, adjusting our approaches based on effectiveness.
Our early interventions prevent harm to the public and the health workforce, recognising that where possible, prevention is always better than remediation.
