National Registration of Health Professionals - the next step

In a previous article we noted that a national scheme for the regulation of health professionals was being developed.

We said:

An intergovernmental agreement (IGA) to establish a scheme of national registration for health professionals was signed on 26March 2008.It is designed to establish a single national registration and accreditation scheme for the nine currently regulated medical professions ranging from doctors to osteopaths.

We also noted:

To allow the national scheme to commence on time (1 July 2010), the Queensland Parliament has passed the Health Practitioner Regulation (Administrative Arrangements) National Law Act 2008,which establishes the a single registration board for each of the nine professions as well as an Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency as (effectively) a company under Queensland law, that will support the various boards.

However, the finer details of the scheme are still being developed.

Another piece of legislation now being developed will fill these in.

It is intended to introduce the relevant Bill into the Queensland Parliament before the end of the year.

However, there is concern as to what sort of parliamentary oversight the Agency will be subject to once it commences operation – it is nominally an entity created by the Queensland Parliament, but exercises legal powers in all Australian states and territories.

There is also concern that the Australian Health Ministers Council rather than specialist professional boards can make the standards that health practitioners must meet – instruments not subject to parliamentary disallowance by any legislature. (UPDATE: the new legislation (discussed below) vests the making of accreditation standards with national registration boards)

It would appear that this issue in particular will not be subject to change because it is a structure that has been decided by COAG.

That said, the Senate Community Affairs Committee has decided to inquire into the proposed national registration scheme.The timing is a bit odd – well after the IGA that set the ball rolling, but only just before a draft of the proposed Bill setting out the nuts and bolts of the national scheme is released.

However, it is nevertheless a review.

The exposure draft of the legislation designed to introduce a national scheme of registration for health information (called the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law) has now been released, with the Committee (thankfully) extending its report date 16 August, so comments on the legislation can be taken.

One of criticisms we have with the executive federalism model of developing regulations (encapsulated by the COAG process) is the absence of parliamentary oversight of subordinate regulatory instruments made under the scheme.

Unlike its interim predecessor, the proposed final law allows for parliamentary disallowance of regulations.

This is good, but disallowance is not extended to registration standards, accreditation standards and codes of practice that go to who can (or cannot) practise as a health professional as well the guts of the detail as to how the professions will be regulated.

The issue of the level parliamentary oversight in the COAG regulatory model still requires to be worked through – hopefully this is where the working through will happen.