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Welcome to the summer edition, our last newsletter for 2025. This year has passed quickly, a reflection on the amount of work the Board has carried out.
I attended this year's CLEAR (Council of Licensure, Enforcement and Regulation) Conference in Wellington where the main themes were around 'right-touch regulation'. This is necessary to address the evolution of the profession balanced with public safety, and has been the major focus of our review of our professional capabilities (see below for details of our upcoming webinar).
We also share experiences at the recent Indigenous Allied Health Conference, and welcome the new graduates who are now registered as medical radiation practitioners for the first time!
I’d like to recognise all those diagnostic radiographers, radiation therapists and nuclear medicine practitioners who have served the people and communities of Australia over the last 12 months. We know some of you will be working over the festive period, and for that we say thank you.
Season’s greetings, everyone. We look forward to seeing you in 2026.
Cara Miller Chair, Medical Radiation Practice Board of Australia
CONTENT WARNING. This newsletter contains references to sexual misconduct that some readers might find distressing.
If you need help, support is available.
You can access 24-hour phone and online support services from the national sexual assault, family, and domestic violence helpline: 1800 Respect.
13YARN can provide crisis support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
Registered health practitioners who have had a concern raised about them are encouraged to contact their insurer, professional association or legal adviser for guidance and support. We publish information on general and profession specific support services on Ahpra's Support services webpage.
At the end of November, two of our Board members attended the annual Indigenous Allied Health Conference on the Sunshine Coast. It was a wonderful opportunity to explore how sustained holistic, strengths-based approaches to health and wellbeing can achieve health equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
Next year’s conference will be in Borloo (Perth) from 30 November to 2 December 2026. If you can go, it’s a great conference to have in your calendar.
A team from Monash University, University of Sydney, and University of Newcastle are seeking medical radiation practitioners in Australia who are either currently practising clinically, or who have left clinical practice within the last six months, to participate in a research study.
The aim of the research study is to understand the factors that influence Australian medical radiation practitioners’ decisions to remain in or leave the profession. The research study involves a short demographic survey and a 45-minute online interview.
If you think you might be interested in participating, please read the Explanatory statement for more information.
If you wish to proceed as a participant in this research study, please review and complete the consent form via this link.
If you have any questions about this study, you can contact principal investigator Dr Kristie Matthews via email: [email protected]
Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee project number 48952.
The Board has released updated Professional capabilities for medical radiation practitioners, which come into effect on 30 March 2026.
There are several important changes that practitioners, employers, education providers, insurance providers and healthcare organisations should know about before they come into effect.
To help you to understand and implement the professional capabilities, we are hosting a webinar on Friday 6 March 2026 at 1pm (AEDT).
The webinar will cover the main changes and implementation arrangements for the professional capabilities, and there will be an opportunity to ask questions.
You can register for the webinar now.
The Board’s latest quarterly registration data report covers the period to 30 September 2025. At this date, there were 20,872 registered medical radiation practitioners, including 20,383 with general registration. This figure includes 16,479 diagnostic radiographers, 3,014 radiation therapists and 1,362 nuclear medicine technologists.
For further data breakdowns by division, age, gender and principal place of practice, visit the Board’s Statistics page to read the report.
People who make a complaint against a health practitioner will be protected from reprisals or retaliation under increases to consumer protections in effect from 1 December 2025.
People who make a complaint in good faith are already protected from liability for information they provide to Ahpra and the National Boards. The changes will extend this protection, making it an offence for someone to threaten, intimidate or otherwise retaliate against a notifier for making a complaint.
The maximum penalty will be $60,000 for an individual or $120,000 for a body corporate.
It will also be illegal to enter into a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with a patient, unless it clearly states in writing that it does not limit a person from making a notification or providing assistance to regulators. Any NDAs that do seek to limit a person’s ability to make a complaint will be invalid.
The consumer protection changes are part of series of amendments to the National Law coming into effect over the coming months.
Information on the changes, how they will be implemented and what they mean for practitioners and the public is available in the full information guide.
The guide is available on the National Law amendments page on the Ahpra website, which includes links to related topics and will be updated as our implementation activities progress.
Changes to the way sexual misconduct is reported on the public Register of practitioners are coming in early 2026.
Practitioners who have a tribunal finding of professional misconduct involving sexual misconduct will have this information permanently published on the register. This change is retrospective, applying from the start of regulation of a profession in the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (the National Scheme).
The information recorded on the register will include a statement that:
Health ministers decided on this change to protect public safety and ensure people are able to make an informed decision when choosing a health practitioner.
Ahpra and the National Boards are finalising guidance on sexual misconduct and the National Law following extensive consultation and will release this guidance as soon as possible. We have also produced a guide to the overall suite of National Law changes which includes more detail on how Ahpra will implement the changes.
This change will be distressing for some practitioners. If you are contacted by Ahpra about additional information being put on your register entry, we encourage you to contact your insurer, professional association or legal adviser for guidance and support. We publish information on general and profession specific support services on Ahpra’s Support services page.
Ahpra and the National Boards remain committed to the prevention of racism and discrimination in healthcare.
This includes the development of a culturally safe and respectful health workforce that contributes to the elimination of racism in the provision of health services.
As announced in September, health ministers have issued a policy direction around the practitioner response to racism and discrimination, including antisemitism.
Ministers highlighted the expertise and experience that Ahpra and the National Boards have in combating racism and discrimination. By way of example, ministers cited the strength of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Cultural Safety Strategy.
Under the direction, Ahpra and the National Boards will ensure health practitioners are completing sufficient education and training to help promote a culture of anti-racism and anti-discrimination and Ahpra will review notifications and complaints processes on racism and discrimination. Ahpra will also work with accreditation authorities to ensure that programs of study equip practitioners to address racism and discrimination.
A new report shows 13 actions aimed at reducing practitioner distress during the regulatory process have now been completed, including changes to the way Ahpra collects information and manages notifications about a practitioner’s health.
The actions were recommended by the Expert Advisory Group (EAG) on minimising practitioner distress, which includes practitioner members with lived experience of the notifications process
The EAG recommended 33 actions covering four areas: managing practitioner health concerns; being open, transparent and fostering hope; supporting practitioners throughout the process; and learning from the practitioner experience.
A report showing the actions completed so far, as well as those still in progress, is now available on the Ahpra website. You can find out more at our webpage: Improving the notifications experience.
Health ministers have released the final report of the independent review of complexity in the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (the National Scheme) with a formal response to 26 recommended actions.
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) welcomes this important milestone and commends independent reviewer Sue Dawson on the work she has undertaken since being appointed to the role in April 2024.
Ahpra CEO Justin Untersteiner said the agency was well-placed to respond to the report and looked forward to working with ministers, departments and other stakeholders on future reforms.
‘The National Scheme has been built on solid foundations but there is much more to do. We know that what got us here, won’t get us there.’
Co-convenor of the Forum of National Registration and Accreditation Scheme Chairs, Rachel Phillips, welcomed the release of the Dawson review.
‘For Ahpra to be effective, there needs to be transparency around the scheme and the measures in place to support practitioners and protect the public,’ Ms Phillips said.
‘The Dawson review adds to the work already under way to improve the system and foster a level of collaboration among regulators and other stakeholders that will serve us well into the future.’
Read the full news article.
Driving safe and sustainable workforce growth through streamlined registration procedures and a strengthened focus on harm prevention are some of the highlights of the 2024/25 Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) annual report.
Read the Medical Radiation Practice Board report and statistics on the Board’s Annual report webpage.
