ADA's submission to Senate inquiry into AHPRA

ADA Inc. has made a submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into the administration of health practitioner registration by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. Recommendations to the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committees are:

i. A comprehensive education process be established to provide clear requirements and timelines for AHPRA to notify practitioners of their registration obligations, due dates and processes;
ii. Provision of faster and more reliable communications between AHPRA and practitioners, the public and/or practitioner bodies be established to ensure inquiries are dealt with in a timely manner;
iii. Creation of nationally-consistent requirements for the response times of practitioners who have a complaint made against them;
iv. Provision of the right for a practitioner to respond to a complaint before it is escalated to investigation status be made available in all cases;
v. A review of the notification and complaints form be undertaken to remove the potential for the escalation of the nature of the claim and thus enable provision of a more balanced presentation of the
issues;
vi. Separate complaint forms to be developed for patient notifications and mandatory notifications;
vii. That AHPRA provide more detailed information to practitioners regarding the specific nature of the complaint a patient may have made to enable the practitioner to respond in a more timely and detailed manner;
viii. The development of a clearer understanding from AHRPA that the de-registration of dental practitioners endangers the livelihoods of those practitioners;
ix. AHPRA should take all steps possible to notify dental practitioners of the risk of de-registration due to non-renewal within a reasonable time frame (90 days from end of registration date); and,
x. That APHRA establishes a formal advisory committee of the registered professions, to discuss issues related to the administration of the new scheme on an on-going basis.