The National Health Practitioner Ombudsman has opened a public consultation on the regulator’s timely finalisation of ‘immediate action’ matters. Have a look at it.
The National Health Practitioner Ombudsman is seeking submissions from GPs, other health practitioners, and health services and organisations into her investigation into delay and procedural safeguards for practitioners who are subject to “immediate action”.
“We’re interested in learning more about individual experiences of what’s working, and what may be causing issues, in the timely finalisation of matters where a practitioner is subject to immediate action,” said the ombudsman, Richelle McCausland.
“We are also seeking information about how existing procedural safeguards are operating, and whether or not there is a need of improvement.”
A consultation paper is available which provides information about the investigation and how to make a submission.
The ombudsman is investigating how matters involving health practitioners subject to immediate action are handled by AHPRA and the National Boards, including if existing policies and procedures enable timely and procedurally fair outcomes.
The issues being investigated include whether AHPRA’s current policies and procedures allow for the timely:
- use of immediate action;
- investigation of health practitioners subject to immediate action; and,
- whether there are sufficient procedural safeguards for health practitioners subject to immediate action.
Current AHPRA and National Board processes (and associated policies) that the investigation is considering include:
- identification of a matter that may meet the threshold for immediate action;
- consideration of whether immediate action is necessary, including the ongoing management of a matter when immediate action is being considered;
- ongoing management of a matter after immediate action is taken, including in relation to communication;
- a matter’s outcome when a practitioner is subject to immediate action, including referral to a Tribunal; and,
- review processes in relation to decisions to take immediate action.
The investigation will not consider immediate action processes undertaken by the Office of the Health Ombudsman in Queensland (the OHO) and bodies in New South Wales including the Health Professional Councils Authority (HPCA) and Health Professional Councils.
The investigation is considering a range of information to inform its findings, including available research, AHPRA’s notifications-related data, office complaints data, targeted engagement with affected individuals and organisations, and submissions received through this public consultation process.
Public consultation is open from 27 February 2025 until 31 March 2025.
The investigation was triggered during the ombudsman’s routine monitoring activities, which identified that practitioners had increasingly raised issues with her office about immediate action being taken.
In 2023–24 the office recorded 84 issues related to immediate action being taken across complaints about the notifications process, compared to 51 issues in 2022–23, 45 issues in 2021–22 and 24 issues in 2020–21.
Health practitioners raised a range of concerns with the ombudsman related to immediate action processes.
A common theme identified by the ombudsman’s office was practitioners expressing frustration with the time taken to receive an outcome for the matter that led to immediate action being taken, and a lack of communication about its progress.
