Conducting health assessments

The most important task of every NSW health professional council is to protect public health and safety and act in the public interest by managing complaints about registered health practitioners or students.

 If we are concerned about the health of a practitioner, we can require them to attend a health assessment. 

The aim of a health assessment is to determine: 

• the practitioner’s current health status 

• if they have an impairment as defined by the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (NSW)whether we need to take any further action to ensure public safety.

We have appointed you, as an expert in the practitioner’s health issue, to conduct an independent assessment and provide us with a report of your findings and recommendations.

How impairment is defined

You will need to determine whether a practitioner has an ‘impairment’ as defined in section 5 of the National Law (NSW). The practitioner is only considered impaired if they have a health issue that is likely to or does affect their ability to practise safely. Students would be considered impaired if their health issue affected their clinical training.

A health issue can be a physical or mental condition, disability, or disorder, including substance abuse or dependence.

If a practitioner has a health issue that is stable and well managed by medical, professional and personal support, they may not have an impairment. 

We will:

• contact you to schedule an appointment

• contact the practitioner to advise them of the appointment

• confirm the appointment in writing (at least one week in advance) 
• provide you with relevant information to help you conduct the assessment 
• advise you of any cancellations.

We arrange all initial appointments. If the practitioner calls you to cancel or reschedule an appointment, please redirect them to us. 

Practitioners are responsible for scheduling their own follow-up assessments.  

The practitioner should arrive at your office 10 minutes before the appointment and bring: 

• official photo identification

• a list of any current medications

• any reading glasses or hearing aids.

Within 14 business days of the appointment, please send us: 

• the report

• your invoice

• any documents the practitioner provides at the appointment (with their consent)

• your consent for us to forward the report to the practitioner’s treating practitioner/s if necessary.

What is a review assessment?

A review assessment is a follow-up evaluation of practitioners who have health-related conditions on their registration. These help us monitor any impairment. 

We usually ask practitioners to attend every 6 months with the same assessor who conducted their initial assessment. The assessor looks for progress since the last assessment. 

A review assessment can also take place when a practitioner believes they are not impaired, requests a review of their conditions or supplies us with additional information about their matter. 

Conflicts of interest

It is important that assessments are independent, and any actual, potential and perceived conflicts of interest are avoided. 

If you are unsure whether there is a conflict of interest, please call us to talk about it. Here are some common conflicts of interest and the action you should take.

We will send you background documents to help you conduct your assessment. Please contact us if you have any questions or feel you have not received adequate advice. 

Depending on availability, relevant information can include:

• complaint details

• triggering matter or reason for review (in the case of review assessments)

• practitioner’s response (where available)

• relevant reports such as medical assessments or hospital discharge reports

• relevant practice history, including previous assessment reports

• available information on current or previous treatment

• compliance report of existing conditions, including any drug or alcohol test results (for review assessments)

• documents that practitioners have told us they want considered as part of the initial assessment. 

If the practitioner brings documents to the assessment

We ask practitioners to give us any relevant information they would like you to consider at the initial assessment so we can forward this to you beforehand. 

For review assessments, we ask practitioners to send you any further documents directly.

If they supply other documents, ask them to consent to these being forwarded to us by writing and signing the top of the document. Please send these additional documents with your report.

If the practitioner does not attend 

Please tell us immediately if the practitioner does not attend the assessment. We may need to take further action. 

If a practitioner fails to attend without providing a reasonable excuse, we may view this as evidence of an impairment. Failing to attend a review assessment could be a breach of conditions placed on their registration. 

If the practitioner fails to attend an initial appointment without cancelling, we will pay your cancellation fee. If they cancel a review assessment, they are responsible for any fees. 

How we use your report 

Your report is considered protected information under section 176F of the National Law (NSW). It can only be disclosed to third parties for the purpose of managing a complaint or further investigation by the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC). The report cannot be used as part of a civil court case unless agreed by both you and the practitioner.  

We will review the report and any information the practitioner provides to decide what further action is needed to protect the public. We will also send a copy of the report to the practitioner. If we are concerned it could significantly impact the practitioner’s wellbeing, we may provide it to their treating practitioner so they can explain its contents. 

In response to your report, we could: 

• close the matter and take no further action if there is no evidence of an impairment 

• counsel the practitioner to work within the limitations of any impairment

• refer the matter to an Impaired Registrants Panel to consider whether conditions or suspension of registration are needed to protect public safety 

• refer the matter for further assessment or investigation

• take immediate interim action [link to s 150 fact sheet] if we believe the health and safety of the public is at risk or it is otherwise in the public interest. 

We will monitor a practitioner’s compliance with any conditions placed on their registration. This could include specific testing and regular review assessments.

What to include in your report 

The report should address the following sections and issues:

Record keeping

Your records of assessments need to meet record keeping requirements outlined in the Health Practitioner Regulation (NSW) Regulation 2016 and any guidelines published by the relevant medical college.