The number of complaints about Australian doctors topped 11,000 in the last financial year, a 12.8% increase from the previous 12 months, according to new figures.
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency’s annual report shows that 8418 medical practitioners – or almost 6% of doctors — faced a complaint in 2023-24.
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency’s annual report shows that 8418 medical practitioners – or almost 6% of doctors — faced a complaint in 2023-24.
Meanwhile the number of doctors registered to practice in WA increased by more than 800, while the number of health practitioners overall registered in the State grew by more than 5%.
Some 93,355 health practitioners were registered to practice in 2023-24 compared to 88,806 in 2022-23 – a rise of 4,549.
As of June 30, the number of medical practitioners in WA increased by 810 from 14,209 in 2022-23 to 15,019 in 2023-24. There were also 29 more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioners registered.
Nationally, the number of internationally qualified practitioners grew substantially, with 48.4% more than in the previous year.
Ahpra chief executive Martin Fletcher welcomed the increase in the number of registered practitioners and efforts to address the risks associated with emerging models of care.
“This has its focus embedded in patient safety and is about identifying issues before they become major problems to ensure a better and safer healthcare system for all Australians,” he said.
Ahpra said improvements to its registration processes following the Kruk review have almost halved the time to finalise international applications, cutting the previous 60-day average to 33 days.
The Kruk review into health practitioner regulatory settings found expanded pathways to registration for all professions was needed, with four key priority areas in anaesthesia, general practice, obstetrics and gynaecology, and psychiatry.
The Federal Government has allocated $90 million and is working with all state and territory governments to implement the recommendations of the review to ensure overseas medical practitioners are not deterred by slow application processes and unnecessary red tape.
Changes have already resulted in a reduction in the amount of time internationally qualified doctors wait for their applications to assessed and finalised from over 100 days in 2021-22 to less than 70 days in 2023-24, according to the Department of Health and Aged Care.
This year close to one in five medical graduates aspired to a career as a GP or rural GP, with 17.5% of graduates nominating general practice or rural generalism as their preferred specialty in the annual Medical Deans survey.
More than 1600 doctors accepted a place on a government-funded training program to become a GP or rural GP, a 13% increase on the year before, the department said.
In 2025, more than 1,750 offers are expected to be made to junior doctors to begin Government-funded GP training.
Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler said the Government was aware of the difficulties Australians faced in getting in to see a doctor and was working to attract, train and retain more doctors.