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Issue 9 - November 2014
As the new Chair of the Chiropractic Board of Australia (the Board) I would like to acknowledge the terrific contribution that the outgoing Chair, Dr Phillip Donato, has made to both the Australian public and the Board. Dr Donato’s stewardship of the Board since its inception in 2010 has been critical in ensuring that the Board has the necessary infrastructure and resources to effectively operate and pursue its objectives under the National Law.1 It is also a great privilege for me to chair a board which consists of such talented members who operate in a focused and effective manner within an environment of great collegiality.
The past few months have been busy for the Board, in particular providing a response to the review of the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (the National Scheme), being conducted by Mr Kim Snowball. I would like to express my gratitude to Board members and our Executive Officer, Dr Paul Fisher, for their invaluable contributions to the response. Mr Snowball’s report can be accessed via the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council website.
I would also like to remind all practitioners that the registration renewal date for chiropractors with general or non-practising registration is 30 November 2014. Chiropractors who do not renew their registration before 31 December 2014 will have their names removed from the national register of practitioners, so please renew your registration now if you haven’t already done so.
In closing, I extend my season’s greetings to you and wish you and your family a happy and safe festive season.
Wayne Minter Chair, Chiropractic Board of Australia
1Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, as in force in each state and territory.
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The Board has launched its 2014 renewal of registration campaign for chiropractors and AHPRA has sent email reminders to chiropractors who have provided an email address.
Chiropractors should act now if their contact information has changed to not miss future reminders to renew. To update contact details visit the Board’s website and use the appropriate link under online services for practitioners. A user ID and secure password is needed. Practitioners who have forgotten their user ID can complete a web enquiry form. Select ‘Online Services - Practitioner' as the category type.
The registration renewal date for chiropractors with general or non-practising registration is 30 November 2014. The quickest and easiest way to renew registration is online.
Renewal applications received during December will incur a late payment fee.
Under the National Law, practitioners who do not renew their registration within one month of their registration expiry date must be removed from the Register of Chiropractors. Their registration will lapse and they will not be able to practise chiropractic in Australia. A fast track application can be made, but only during January. The practitioner cannot practise until the application is processed and the national register is updated.
Chiropractors should read the Board’s registration standards carefully before applying to renew as information in support of declarations made in an application could be requested.
A renewal FAQ is available on the Board’s website.
AHPRA is calling for online applications from students who are in their final year of an approved program of study. Students due to complete study at the end of 2014 are urged to apply for registration before completing their course.
An email reminder to apply early and online will be sent by AHPRA on behalf of the Board to final-year students on the Student Register. Applications can also be made by completing a paper application form.
Chiropractic students are encouraged to read the information on AHPRA’s website under Graduate applications. Graduates must meet the Board’s registration standards and need to be a registered chiropractor before they start practising.
Under the registration standard, all practising chiropractors must complete at least 25 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) per annual registration period. The CPD undertaken by practitioners must have formal learning elements and may have informal learning elements. Please refer to the registration standards and codes and guidelines on the Board’s website for advice about what is formal and informal learning.
At least 50 per cent of these hours, (a minimum 12.5 hours), must be formal learning activities. The balance may be formal or informal learning activities. All practitioners must hold a current Senior First Aid (Level 2) certificate or equivalent. First aid certificates need to be renewed every three years.
All chiropractors must maintain a personal portfolio to record their CPD activities. A portfolio for the purposes of CPD should include:
In addition, in relation to formal learning activities, a portfolio should include:
If you are required to provide the Board with evidence of your CPD, for example when audited, your personal portfolio needs to demonstrate how you have complied with the requirements of the Board. The Board prefers requests for exemption or variation of the CPD requirements to be lodged as soon as the need arises rather than waiting until after declaring non compliance upon renewal.
The Board’s CPD registration standard states that all generally registered practitioners must hold a current first aid certificate at the minimum standard of a Senior First Aid (Level 2) certificate or equivalent. This is in addition to CPD requirements. First aid certificates are valid for three years and we are now approaching three years since chiropractors renewed their registration for the first time under the National Law. We anticipate that many practitioners will be looking to refresh their first aid training to ensure they comply with the provisions of the CPD registration standard.
In recent years the name and description of first aid courses has changed several times. Senior First Aid (Level 2) has now been replaced by HLTAID 003 Provide First Aid, which includes both HLTAID 001 Provide CPR & HLTAID 002 Basic Emergency Life Support. The HLTAID 003 course is the equivalent course that will satisfy the current requirements of the Board. For more information about first aid courses see the training.gov.au website. Any course that is based on the same competencies as HLTAID003 is acceptable to the Board. The Board notes that this qualification needs to be refreshed every 3 years and yearly updates are not required by the Board.
The Board will shortly be sending practitioners an email inviting them to participate in a short survey to obtain the profession’s input and views on a range of topics relevant to the Board and its regulation of the profession. Whilst participation is voluntary, the Board encourages as many practitioners as possible to complete this survey. The survey is being conducted on the half of the Board by Di Marzio Research, who will collect and analyse the data and report that data to the Board. All responses are anonymous, there will be no personal details recorded, and all information and opinions provided will only be used for research purposes. All responses will be treated in accordance with the Information Privacy Act 2000. The survey will take approximately 10 minutes to complete.
You are invited to participate in a quick online survey on attitudes and behaviours of Australian chiropractors with regard to the reporting of adverse events following treatment.
A Masters of Chiropractic student from Macquarie University seeks your help in performing an important survey.
The purpose of the study is to gather data on adverse event reporting system utilisation. This is the first step in a wider agenda to improve the reporting systems, which will ultimately benefit the wider community.
Your responses to this survey are important and will provide information on the reporting of adverse events by chiropractors in Australia.
For further information and to participate, please access the survey.
This research has ethics approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee at Macquarie University.
The National Law requires practitioners, employers and education providers to report notifiable conduct, as defined in section 140 of the National Law, to AHPRA in order to prevent the public being placed at risk of harm. Practitioners are required to make a notification (mandatory notification) when they have a reasonable belief that any registered health practitioner is engaging in notifiable conduct that may be a serious risk to the public. The National Law protects notifiers who act in good faith in making a notification.
Notfiable conduct is defined in the National Law as:
Not being required to make a mandatory notification does not prevent a voluntary notification being made for the concerning behaviour of a registered health practitioner.
More information can be found on the Board's website.
The Board and AHPRA have published the health profession agreement (HPA) that outlines the partnership between the Board and AHPRA, and the services AHPRA will provide to the Board in 2014/2015. The HPA also provides information about the Board’s financial operations and fees.
Audits are an important way the Board and AHPRA can better protect the public. AHPRA, on behalf of the Board, conducts random audits to ensure that practitioners are meeting the mandatory registration standards and provide assurance to the community and the Board.
Audits of random samples of practitioners from all professions will occur periodically throughout the year. Registered health practitioners may be audited at any time on any one of the mandatory registration standards.
Each time you apply to renew your registration as a chiropractor, you make a declaration that you have (or have not) met the registration standards for the profession. The audit requires that you provide further information to support your declarations.
The selection for audit is random. You may be audited at any time. If you are selected for audit you will be required to provide further information to support your registration declarations.
Further information is available on the Board’s website on the Audit page.
Registered health practitioners can now request a Certificate of Registration Status (CoRS) using the online AHPRA portal. In the past this was a manual process involving a form which was either posted or hand-delivered to an AHPRA office. Practitioners can now:
There is a fee of $50 for each CoRS.
When practitioners are seeking registration or employment that requires them to be registered outside Australia, the regulatory authority in that jurisdiction may require a Certificate of Registration Status (CoRS). This document is also referred to as a Certificate of Good Standing or Certificate of Current Professional Status by some regulators.
The certificate provided by AHPRA:
AHPRA offers a service to practitioners to provide a CoRS to regulatory authorities in other countries and some other approved organisations, including a number of specialist colleges. Approved organisations can be found on AHPRA’s website under Practitioner services.
The certificate is never provided to the requesting practitioner or to an employer, and can only be sent to an AHPRA-approved regulatory body or organisation.
These changes are part of our ongoing work with AHPRA to improve and streamline services for registered practitioners.
The independent review of the National Scheme is underway and a consultation paper (514 KB,PDF) is now published on the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council website.
The terms of reference for the review are published at the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council website under ‘media releases’ on the right-hand tab. The review – led by independent reviewer, Mr Kim Snowball – was built into the intergovernmental agreement that set up the framework and governance arrangements for the National Scheme. The agreement stated that the Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council (Ministerial Council) would initiate an independent review after three years of the National Scheme’s operation.
The National Boards and AHPRA are actively participating in the review process.
One of the objectives of the National Scheme is to protect the public by ensuring that only health practitioners who are suitably trained and qualified to practise in a competent and ethical manner are registered. To achieve this objective AHPRA and the National Boards are increasing the use of data and research to inform policy and regulatory decision-making. Specifically, we’re building organisational capacity for analysis, supporting external collaboration on regulatory research, and conducting or supporting high value regulatory research and analysis.
To do this well, we must effectively govern access to data generated by the National Scheme. We can provide access to de-identified data, as governed by the National Law and the relevant privacy laws and policies, but strict limits exist. These limitations are explained on the AHPRA website, which also includes a downloadable data access and research application form (1.11 MB,PDF) for interested researchers.
AHPRA and the National Boards encourage applications from researchers whose projects aim to deliver regulatory improvement and health workforce reform.
From 1 July 2014 a new law came in to effect in Queensland, the Health Ombudsman Act 2013.
From this date, all complaints about Queensland health practitioners will be received by the Office of the Health Ombudsman (OHO) who will either manage the matters or refer them to the relevant National Board to manage.
Complaints that were made to AHPRA or National Boards before 1 July 2014 will generally continue to be managed by AHPRA on behalf of National Boards. However, under the new law the OHO can request that a matter be referred to them to be managed. If this were to happen, AHPRA would inform both the notifier and the practitioner who is the subject of the notification.
For information about the OHO please visit the Office of the Health Ombudsman website or call 133 646 (133 OHO).