On 26 March 2008 the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) signed an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) for a National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for the Health Professions, which will commence on 1 July 2010.
The agreement will establish a single national registration and accreditation scheme for health professionals, beginning with the nine professions currently registered in all jurisdictions. That is, chiropractic, osteopathy, physiotherapy, optometry, nursing and midwifery, pharmacy, dental care (dentists, dental hygienists, dental prosthetists and dental therapists), medicine, and psychology.
The objectives of the national scheme, to be set out in the legislation, are to:
(a) provide for the protection of the public by ensuring
that only practitioners who are suitably trained and
qualified to practise in a competent and ethical
manner are registered;
(b) facilitate workforce mobility across Australia and
reduce red tape for practitioners;
(c) facilitate the provision of high quality education and
training and rigorous and responsive assessment of
overseas-trained practitioners;
(d) have regard to the public interest in promoting access
to health services; and
(e) have regard to the need to enable the continuous
development of a flexible, responsive and
sustainable Australian health workforce and enable
innovation in education and service delivery.
The IGA can be viewed at www.coag.gov.au under “COAG Meeting Outcomes”.