Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency - Revised guidelines, code and policy effective today

Important information for all health including Chinese Medicine practitioners in effect from today (17 March 2014)

Updated National Board requirements come into effect today:

• revised Guidelines for advertising regulated health services
• revised Guidelines for mandatory notifications
• revised Code of conduct, and
• new Social media policy.

These documents were developed and released by the National Boards regulating Australia’s 602,000 registered health practitioners through the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (the National Scheme).

The revised codes, guidelines and policy explain the National Boards’ expectations of practitioners and have been designed to improve awareness, understanding and compliance.

Health practitioners need to know and understand these documents to ensure their practice meets National Board expectations. National Boards released the content of these documents on 13 February on their websites, so that practitioners could familiarise themselves before the requirements take effect.

National Boards have also issued FAQs to answer questions asked since the new information was published.

The Guidelines for advertising regulated health services , Guidelines for mandatory notifications  and Social media policy  were developed jointly by the 14 National Boards in the National Scheme and apply to all registered health professions in Australia.