Qld Annual Report Summary 2015/16

Foreword from the AHPRA Chair and CEO

The regulation of almost 660,000 registered health practitioners across 14 health professions and a federation of eight states and territories is a large and important task.

AHPRA and the National Boards rely on the local knowledge and expertise of boards, committees and our offices in each state and territory to protect the public Australia-wide. Our number one priority is patient safety while enabling a competent and flexible health workforce to meet the current and future health needs of the community.

Queensland has 127,376 registered health practitioners. This represents 19.4% of all registered Australian practitioners, with growth of 4.6% from last year – the highest increase in any jurisdiction.

The Queensland office of AHPRA and the National Boards, along with local boards and committees, continued to work closely with the Office of the Health Ombudsman (OHO) to ensure that notifications about health practitioners are managed in a way that offers the best protection to the health and safety of the Queensland community.

Improvements have been made to the timeliness of notification referrals and the information collected by the OHO prior to referral, to reduce timeframes and duplication.

The number of notifications referred to AHPRA and National Boards by the OHO more than doubled this year, providing the impetus to explore new ways to manage notifications. The Queensland office continues to collaborate with the OHO to streamline operations and find opportunities to better manage the regulation of health practitioners. Many improvements have been made to the co-regulatory arrangements, and we continue to look into ways to improve processes.

AHPRA’s core values of service, achievement and collaboration have provided the foundation for the work of the Queensland office in 2015/16, through efforts to streamline business processes and maximise the use of improved systems and reporting capability. Performance improvements have been driven by a highly capable and dedicated team.

In partnership with local boards and committees, the Queensland office ensures timely and effective regulatory decision-making. This is consistent with our shared regulatory principles and our commitment to being a risk-based regulator.

We thank the staff of the AHPRA Queensland office, board and committee members for their hard work and commitment over the past year. While much has been achieved, there is always more to do. We look forward to continuing to work with them to protect the Queensland community.