Under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (the National Law) you need to tell AHPRA, within seven days when:

• you have been charged with an offence punishable by 12 months imprisonment or more
• you have been convicted of an offence punishable by imprisonment
• you no longer have professional indemnity insurance, as required by the registration standard set by your National Board
• you have had your right to practice at a hospital or health service withdrawn or restricted
• you have had your Medicare billing privileges restricted
• your authority to administer, obtain, possess, prescribe, sell, supply or use a scheduled medicine or class of scheduled medicines is cancelled or restricted
• a complaint has been made about you to an organisation that provides health services, or to another organisation as detailed in the National Law.
• your registration as a health practitioner in another country is restricted, suspended or cancelled.

If you are a student, you need to tell AHPRA when:

• you have been charged with an offence punishable by 12 months imprisonment or more
• you have been convicted of an offence punishable by imprisonment
• your registration as a student in a health profession in another country outside Australia has been suspended or cancelled.

These are called ‘notifiable events’ under section 130 of the National Law and it is your responsibility as a registered health practitioner to tell AHPRA if they occur. You can do this by either writing to AHPRA or completing a form titled Notice of Certain Events – NOCE 00. AHPRA will refer this information to the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) and a health professional council.

Councils always consider the context of what you have told AHPRA and assess any risk to the public, before they decide what happens next.

After a council receives information about a notifiable event they:

• may ask you for more information as part of the joint assessment process with the HCCC to understand what has happened
• consider carefully whether they need to take any regulatory action to protect public safety
• give you the opportunity to tell them more.

If a council thinks they need to restrict your registration in some way to keep patients safe, they will:

• encourage you to get advice from your professional indemnity insurer or a legal representative
• keep you informed about what they are proposing to do before they do it
• give you the opportunity to provide them with information before we make a decision.

Councils only decide whether they need to take regulatory action, after considering your individual case. Councils make decisions based on their assessment of the risk to public safety. At the end of their process, a council might decide to:

• take no further regulatory action
• restrict your registration in some way, through conditions
• suspend your registration for a period while we gather more information
• refer your case to the HCCC for investigation if it raises a serious issue of risk to the public.

As a registered health practitioner it is important to take steps to keep yourself well. If you have a health problem, we encourage you to seek care from another registered health practitioner. More detail about the standards expected in relation to registered practitioners managing their health is included in the code of conduct for your profession.

If you are concerned about your ability to provide safe care because of your health, do not rely on your own assessment of the risk you may pose.  Instead your treating practitioner can help you about whether and in what ways you may need to modify your practice. You should follow your treating practitioner's advice.

You can read more about the Health Program, which outlines how councils manage health practitioners with impairment.

If you have a health condition that is not being managed effectively, it is possible that you may have an impairment that has placed or will place the public at risk of harm. In this circumstance, there may be an obligation on another registered health practitioner, an employer or an education provider to report this information to us. Read more about mandatory reporting.