Online renewal of registration is now open

24 Sep 2014

Online renewal of registration to practise in Australia is now open for Chinese medicine practitioners.

About 4,200 Chinese medicine practitioners who are due to renew their general or non-practising registration with the Chinese Medicine Board of Australia (the Board) by 30 November can submit an online application now. All Chinese medicine practitioners, including those with conditions on their registration, can apply online to renew their registration.

Practitioners with conditions on their registration will, however, be contacted by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) and asked to provide more information to complete their application for renewal. This includes practitioners with supervision conditions, English language conditions, education conditions and other conditions imposed at the time of registration.

Chinese medicine practitioners can keep practising while their renewal application is assessed. This may take some time. So a practitioner’s registration expiry date on the national register of health practitioners will continue to be displayed as 30 November 2014 until assessment of the application is completed.

Under the National Law¹, all registered health practitioners are responsible for renewing their registration on time each year. Last year more than 96.3 per cent of all health practitioner registration renewals due by 30 November (12 professions) were submitted online – an increase of 6.3 per cent.

‘Online renewal is quick and easy and it’s fantastic to see an annual increase in the number of Chinese medicine practitioners using this secure service,’ Chinese Medicine Board Chair, Professor Charlie Xue said.

The Board announced last month that it had limited the registration fee increase to national CPI for the registration period from 1 December 2014 to 30 November 2015.

The National Registration and Accreditation Scheme is funded by practitioners’ registration fees and there is no cross subsidisation between professions.

A series of reminders to renew are being sent to practitioners with a registered email address by AHPRA, on behalf of the Board. The reminders include a link to online renewal.

Professor Xue said Chinese medicine practitioners whose contact details had not changed did not need to do anything. However, he urged others to act soon if they had not provided AHPRA with updated information.

‘Make sure AHPRA has your current contact information so you don’t miss future email and hard copy reminders to renew,’ he said.

‘Registering your email address also means you won’t miss important regulatory updates from the Board.’

Professor Xue reminded Chinese medicine practitioners to carefully read the Board’s registration standards which specify the requirements for registered practice.

‘You could be asked to provide information in support of your declarations so it’s important to know what the requirements are for registration to practise before you apply.’ 

To update your contact details use the online services for practitioners. You will need your user ID and secure password. If you do not have your user ID, complete a web enquiry form and select ‘Online Services - Practitioner' as the category type.

Useful information for Chinese medicine practitioners is on the Board’s website:

• Registration standards
• Registration renewal
• Renewal FAQ
• Renewal FAQ for Chinese medicine practitioners with conditions on registration

For more information

• Lodge an online enquiry form 
• For registration enquiries: 1300 419 495 (within Australia) +61 03 8708 9001 (overseas callers) 
• For media enquiries: (03) 8708 9200

Download a PDF of this Media release - Online renewal of registration is now open for Chinese medicine practitioners - 24 September 2014 (132 KB,PDF)

¹The Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, as in force in each state and territory (the National Law)