Vic 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.

Victoria has 169,478 registered health practitioners. This represents 25.8% of all Australian practitioners, with growth of 3.1% from last year.

The key focus for the Victorian office this year has been to strengthen performance. This office has developed strategies to ensure a strong culture of continuous improvement, which reflects AHPRA’s values of service, achievement and collaboration.

Initiatives have been introduced throughout 2015/16 to ensure an appropriate balance between the interests of patients, public safety and the rights of practitioners under investigation. A stronger approach to information sharing has been developed, as have new protocols for information sharing under the National Law.

The Victorian office launched a national pilot to improve risk assessment of new notifications, piloted a new national notifications liaison officer role, and through its legal team significantly reduced the number of matters waiting for extended periods to be heard in tribunal or by a panel. The Victorian registration team also collaborated with the NSW Office on a major project to assess new graduate applications for medical, nursing, midwifery and physiotherapy, finalising nearly 10,000 graduate registration applications over five months.

In partnership with the local state boards and committees, the Victorian 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 Victorian office, boards 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 serve the Victorian community.