Chinese Medicine regulation at work: Protecting the public in 2017/18

14 Feb 2019

A profession-specific annual report summary that looks into the work of the Chinese Medicine Board of Australia over the year to 30 June 2018 has now been published.

The report draws on data from the 2017/18 annual report by AHPRA and the National Boards. This information provides a snapshot of the profession as at 30 June 2018, and includes the number of applications for registration, outcomes of practitioner audits and segmentation of the registrant base by gender, age, division and principal place of practice.

Notifications information includes the number of complaints or concerns received, matters opened and closed during the year, types of complaint, monitoring and compliance and matters involving immediate action.

Insights into the profession include:

• 4,882 Chinese medicine practitioners were registered in 2017/18.
• 660 new applications for registration were received.
• Chinese medicine practitioners make up 0.7% of all registered health practitioners in Australia.
• The number of Chinese medicine practitioners increased by 0.5% from 2016/17.
• 55.8% Chinese medicine practitioners are women; 44.2% are men.
• New South Wales (NSW) was the principal place of practice for most Chinese medicine practitioners (1,992 – 40.8%).
• Northern Territory (NT) was home to the smallest number (13).
• The age bracket with the largest number of Chinese medicine practitioners was 40–44 (692).
• 18 Chinese medicine practitioners were under 25 years of age.
• 24 were aged 80 or over.
• 74 notifications (complaints or concerns) were lodged with AHPRA and the Health Professional Councils Authority (HPCA) in NSW about Chinese medicine practitioners.
• AHPRA closed 30 notifications about Chinese medicine practitioners in 2017/18. This represents 0.4% of all matters closed across the 15 professions in the National Scheme.
• 22 Chinese medicine practitioners were actively monitored by AHPRA for health performance and/or conduct during the year.
• Immediate action was considered 6 times and taken 5 times as an interim step to protect the public.
• 31 complaints were made about possible statutory offences by Chinese medicine practitioners during the year. Over half of new matters related to title protection.

To download this report, or to view the main 2017/18 annual report, visit the AHPRA website.

In January and February 2019, AHPRA and the National Boards are publishing summaries that break down 2017/18 data for 13 other Boards in the National Scheme.

For more information

• Visit the AHPRA website
• Lodge an online enquiry form
• For registration enquiries: 1300 419 495 (within Australia) +61 3 9275 9009 (overseas callers)
• For media enquiries: (03) 8708 9200