Ahpra in numbers

Registration

• 852,272 registered health practitioners in Australia across 16 professions in 2021/22
  • This includes 20,781 practitioners on the pandemic sub-register
• 26,552 (+3.2%) more registrants in 2021/22 than in 2020/21 (up from 825,720)
• 85,052 applications for registration received across all professions
  • 84,141 applications for registration finalised
  • 44,098 applications from new graduates, including nearly 24,340 nursing applications
• 75,543 domestic and international criminal history checks made
  • 2,899 (3.8%) of these found disclosable court outcomes 
  • Only 21 were serious enough to affect a practitioner’s registration
• 765,078 practitioners had their registration renewed; renewal is now online-only
  
   

Accreditation

• The National Scheme accredited more than 840 approved programs of study, delivered by more than 130 education providers
• 184,353 students studying to be health practitioners through an approved program of study or clinical training program in 2021/22

Notifications

• 10,803 notifications about 8,380 health practitioners received by Ahpra in 2021/22
• Nationally 14,313 practitioners had 18,710 notifications made about them (including complaints managed by the Health Professional Councils Authority in NSW and the Office of the Health Ombudsman in Queensland)
• 1.7% of all registered health practitioners were the subject of a notification
• 6.2% more notifications Australia-wide than in 2020/21 
• 6,983 (64.6%) notifications received were about a single concern, 2,520 notifications (23.3%) were about two concerns, and 1,300 (12.0%) were about three or more concerns
• 925 notifications about lack of appropriate professional boundaries (63% increase)
  • The increase can be attributed to new concern types relating to sexism, sexual harassment or gendered violence in healthcare, and expectations of practitioners to maintain respectful, professional practice
• National Boards took immediate (interim) action 685 times to restrict or suspend the registration of a practitioner
• 1,033 mandatory notifications received, 18.4% fewer than in 2020/21
• 10,350 notifications closed by Ahpra in 2021/22
• Joint consideration with the Office of the Health Ombudsman in Queensland began on 6 December 2021; 2,100 notifications were jointly considered 
  
   

Compliance

• 2,568 practitioners monitored for health, performance and/or conduct during 2021/22
• 4,740 cases being actively monitored at 30 June 2022
  • The majority, 2,814 cases (59.4%), were about suitability/eligibility for registration
• 499 complaints about advertising made
  
   

Legal action

• 11 prosecutions and 3 appeals in the courts
• 344 matters referred to independent tribunals 
• 187 matters about professional misconduct determined by tribunals; 98.4% resulted in disciplinary action
• 103 appeals lodged in tribunals
• 418 criminal offence complaints received
  • 75.8% about title protection
    
     

Board and committee appointments

• In 2021/22, 668 appointments made:
  • 100 Ministerial appointments of National Board members 
  • 388 National Board appointments of national committee and panel members
  • 60 Ministerial appointments of state, territory or regional board members
  • 120 National Board appointments of state, territory and regional committee members
• 13 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Peoples were appointed across seven National Boards, one regional board and three committees 
  
   

Responding to inquiries

• 766 calls answered and 278 web enquiries responded to every business day by Customer Service team
• 481 media enquiries responded to
• 286 valid freedom of information applications received
• 106 requests received for access to data for research 

Communicating and engaging

• Ahpra website viewed more than 29 million times
• Our social media posts seen more than 3 million times with 135,109 interactions (likes, shares and comments); 106,453 LinkedIn followers; 77,715 Facebook interactions; 11,416 Twitter followers; 2,798 Instagram followers
• 617 news items, including 37 media releases, published
• 71 court and tribunal summaries published
• 61 National Board newsletters, with an average open rate of 63.2%
• 18 episodes of our Taking care podcast 
  
   

For more information about how we have performed, and to download our latest annual report, see the 2021/22 annual report.