Have your say on the review of the Recency of practice registration standard

05 Dec 2025

The Medical Board of Australia is reviewing the Recency of practice registration standard and want to hear from you. Do you support the proposed changes? What are its strengths and limitations? Do the changes increase flexibility for practitioners returning to practice? Is there anything missing? Now is the time to have your say.

We want to balance public safety with workforce flexibility, and to continue to provide options for practitioners, including the ability to take breaks from and re-enter the health workforce more easily. Minor changes have also been made to make the standard clearer and easier to understand.

The revised standard:

• has minor wording changes to make the intention of the Board clearer
• requires a minimum of 450 hours of practice in the previous three years or 150 hours of practice in the previous 12 months. This is slightly less than the current standard (152/456 hours) and brings the number of hours in line with other professions. It continues to allow flexibility for practitioners who wish to work part-time on an ongoing basis and for those who wish to take longer breaks from practice
• continues the requirement for practitioners moving to a new area of practice to ensure they have sufficient training and/or qualifications to achieve competency in the new area
• provides advice to practitioners who have not met the standard about the information they need to provide to the Board that will help them to demonstrate their competence when applying for a return to practice
• changes the defintion of a recent graduate from two years to one year
• continues to provide options for practitioners, including the ability to take breaks from and re-enter the health workforce more easily.

We are interested in your feedback on the proposed changes and if any improvements could be made.

How to have your say

Visit the current consultations page to read the consultation paper. To share your feedback, please email your submission in the response template to [email protected] by COB Friday 2 March 2026. We have extended the consultation timeframe because of the busy end of year and holiday period.

Your feedback is appreciated and will help us find out how we can improve the standard.

What is the Recency of practice registration standard?

To ensure that the public receive safe including culturally safe, effective, high-quality healthcare, we require practitioners to maintain and develop their professional skills, including through recent practice. The recency of practice registration standard sets out the minimum number of hours of practice required for a practitioner to remain registered and what may be required when a practitioner doesn’t meet the standard.