AHPRA revised guidelines on mandatory reporting
AHPRA recently released revised guidelines for mandatory notifications, which come into effect from mid-March 2014. The guidelines reassure doctors that the aim of the mandatory notification requirements is to prevent the public from being placed at risk of harm. The intention is that practitioners notify AHPRA if they believe that another practitioner has behaved in a way which presents a serious risk to the public.
The guidelines also say that if the only risk is to the practitioner alone, and there is no risk to the public, the threshold for making a mandatory notification would not be reached.
‘For example, in a case where the risk is clearly addressed by being appropriately managed through treatment and the practitioner is known to be fully compliant with that, mandatory notification would not be required. Conversely, a mandatory notification is required if the risk to the public is not mitigated by treatment of the practitioner or in some other way,’ the guidelines state.
AHPRA media release that contains a link (under FAQ and additional information) to a document showing the differences between the current and revised Mandatory notifications guidelines.
