Conditions on my practice

Councils place conditions on your registration to help you practise safely, usually in response to a complaint. The effect will be to restrict the way you work but the intent is to protect the public, not to discipline you.

Conditions stay in place until the Council decides to remove them. It will only do that if you can address the concerns about your practice and there is no risk to public health and safety. There is no standard time frame because every circumstance is different.

Councils can impose conditions early on when they receive a complaint (if there are immediate public safety concerns), during the complaint process (if concerns emerge), or at the end of the process.

Conditions vary, depending on the issue/issues of concern, but they can include:

• limits on where and how many hours you can practise 
• limits on practising in a certain way, or on the scope of your practice
• limits on the type and number of patients you can see
• working under supervision
• restrictions on what you can prescribe, or what services you deliver 
• undertaking education or training  
• having regular health or performance assessments 
• periodically reporting on your practice
• having your practice and records inspected
• being screened for drug and/or alcohol use
• receiving treatment from a health practitioner such as a GP, psychologist or psychiatrist
• suspending you from practice.

If conditions are placed on your registration, we’ll notify you. We also write to the person who made the complaint to let them know the outcome.

By law, we must also notify your employer and any accreditation bodies about any conditions or suspensions on your registration.

We notify the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) so they can publish the conditions or suspension on the national registeropen_in_new, although health-related conditions are not usually published. 

The HPCA regulatory teams monitor whether practitioners comply with their conditions, and they will keep in touch with you. They organise inspections and audits, co-ordinate drug and alcohol testing, brief the Councils and members of Council committees and panels, and make sure all regulatory requirements are met.

Councils remove conditions for a range of reasons, including when you meet all the requirements, or if your circumstances change. When conditions are lifted or changed, we notify Ahpra so they can update the national register.

You can ask Councils to review your conditions. 

Our Resources library contains key documents that explain the steps involved in Council processes, what to expect, and what's required of you. 

If you have conditions on your practice that require you to attend drug or alcohol screening, you can locate collection centres on the Laverty Pathologyopen_in_new website.

Further information on Ahpra-accredited collection centres is available on the Ahpra websiteopen_in_new.