Medical radiation practice regulation at work: Protecting the public in 2015/16

07 Mar 2017

A profession-specific annual report summary that looks into the work of the Medical Radiation Practice Board of Australia over the year to 30 June 2016 has now been published.

The report draws on data from the 2015/16 annual report by AHPRA and the National Boards. This information provides a snapshot of the profession as at 30 June 2016, and includes the number of applications for registration, outcomes of criminal history checks and segmentation of the registrant base by gender, age and principal place of practice.

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

Insights into the profession include:

• Of the 657,621 registered health practitioners in Australia in 2015/16, 15,303 were medical radiation practitioners (2.3% of the total registrant base). 
• 1,722 new applications for registration as a medical radiation practitioner were received. 
• Registration for medical radiation practice grew by 2.9% during the year to 30 June 2016. 
• Student registration decreased by 15.7%, to 3,447 registrants. 
• 68% of medical radiation practitioners are women; 32% are men. 
• New South Wales was the principal place of practice for most medical radiation practitioners (5,089). 
• The Northern Territory (NT) was home to the least (112). 
• The age bracket with the most medical radiation practitioners was 25-29 (3,053 registrants). 
• 1,441 medical radiation practitioners were under 25 years of age; 17 were aged 75 or over. 
• As part of the registration process, 1,728 criminal history checks were carried out for medical radiation practitioners. Of 61 disclosable court outcomes, none required regulatory action. 
• 48 notifications (complaints or concerns) were lodged about medical radiation practitioners during the year, equating to 0.3% of the profession. 
• Immediate action was taken to suspend or limit a medical radiation practitioner’s registration six times in 2015/16. 
• There were 110 active monitoring cases, with most relating to suitability/eligibility for registration as a medical radiation practitioner (99). 
• Eight new complaints were made about possible offences relating to the use of the protected title ‘medical radiation practitioner’.

To download this report, or to view the main 2015/16 annual report and summary reports by state or territory, visit our microsite.

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