AHPRA Press Release - Snapshot of National Registers
05 May 2011
Media release from AHPRA 18 April 2011
Snapshot of national registers
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) has today released a snapshot profile of Australia’s registered health practitioners.
AHPRA CEO, Mr Martin Fletcher, said the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme made it possible for the first time to know how many registered health practitioners there are in Australia at any one point in time, within the 10 professions in the National Scheme.
“In the past, the same person could be registered in different states and territories, so a clear profile of the number of practitioners within a specific profession was not always possible,” Mr Fletcher said.
“Having access to this kind of accurate and detailed information is one of the benefits of national registration because it will assist in workforce planning,” he said.
A snapshot of the Registers of Practitioners in April 2011 (detailed below by state and territory) reveals:
- There are 528,000 health practitioners registered across the 10 professions in the National Scheme.
- There are 331,376 registered nurses and midwives, making these professions the largest of the 10 regulated under the National Scheme.
- There are nearly 88,000 registered medical practitioners, nearly 29,000 registered psychologists, nearly 26,000 pharmacists, about 22,000 physiotherapists,18,000 dental practitioners and between 1,500 and 5,000 registrants in each of the other five professions.
- NSW has the most registered health practitioners (156,000), followed by Victoria (136,500) and Queensland (close to 100,000).
Mr Fletcher said it was important to remember that the National Register was dynamic, reflecting registrants’ movement through the professions. He cautioned that there was a distinction between registered practitioners and practitioners active in the workforce, as not all practitioners who are registered to practise choose to do so. There are also some practitioners who hold non-practising registration.
Please follow this link for the full press release:
http://www.ahpra.gov.au/News/Snapshot-of-national-registers-Media-Release.aspx