AHPRA: Covid-19 sub-register and Taking Care podcast series

April 8, 2020 Staff reporters

Due to an expected surge in demand for Australian health workers in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) has established a new pandemic sub-register to fast track the return to the workforce of experienced and qualified health practitioners.

 

 “The sub-register will enable doctors, nurses, midwives and pharmacists, who previously held general or specialist registration and left the register of practitioners or moved to non-practising registration in the past three years, to return to practice. Only those who are properly qualified, competent and suitable will be returned to the register,” said AHPRA in a statement.

 

AHPRA is in the process of contacting more than 40,000 practitioners in Australia who meet the criteria to tell them they will be added to this new sub-register.

 

“We want more of our critical health practitioners available to work as part of the health system in responding to the pandemic,” said AHPRA CEO Martin Fletcher. “Patient safety remains an important focus and registered practitioners who were subject to regulatory action in the past three years will not be re-registered. Employers and health departments will also play an important role by undertaking employment and probity checks and providing any induction and training which may be needed.”

 

With the support of Australia’s health ministers, the Medical Board of Australia, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia and the Pharmacy Board of Australia, the short-term pandemic response sub-register will run for the next 12 months. It will operate on an opt-out basis with practitioners added to the pandemic sub-register automatically.

 

“They will not need to fill in forms or pay fees, nor meet the usual return to practice requirements,” said AHPRA. “There is no obligation for anyone added to the sub-register to practise or remain on it. They can opt out at any time, for any reason.”

 

Practitioners who choose to stay on the pandemic sub-register and go back to work, will need to comply with their profession’s code of conduct, professional indemnity insurance requirements and work within the scope of their practice. After 12 months (or sooner if the pandemic subsides), they will be removed from the sub-register, said AHPRA. “If they wish to continue practising after the emergency, they will be able to apply for ongoing registration through the standard process.”

 

Other health practitioners, including physiotherapists and radiographers, will be added to the sub-register in the near future, it added.

 

Taking care podcast on sub-register

 

The latest episode in AHPRA’s Taking care podcast focuses on Introducing the Covid-19 pandemic sub-register.

 

Featuring Alison McMillan, the Commonwealth chief nursing and midwifery officer; Dr Chris Zappala, vice-president of the Australian Medical Association and a respiratory physician; and Brett Simmonds, Pharmacy Board of Australia chair, this episode discusses the opportunities and implications of the sub-register, said AHPRA.

 

“(The panellists) will talk to Taking care host Susan Biggar about how the pandemic response sub-register will work, what these returning practitioners might do as a 'surge workforce', how vulnerable practitioners might be affected and how the sub-register might look in further iterations.”

 

To download and listen to the podcast, go to: www.ahpra.gov.au/Publications/Podcasts.aspx.

Listeners can also subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

 

For more information and advice for healthcare practitioners relating to Covid-19 from AHPRA visit, www.ahpra.gov.au/News/COVID-19.aspx