Emma’s story

An international medical graduate, Emma, made a complaint to the Ombudsman about how her application for a change in circumstances related to supervision requirements on her registration was handled by Ahpra and the Board. Emma was concerned about a delay in assessing her application. Emma also believed that the Board’s refusal to accept her request for a change in circumstances was not in line with the Supervised practice guidelines for international medical graduates.

What we found

Our office began an investigation into Emma’s concerns. We found:

• Emma’s application had been assessed by Ahpra and the Board in line with the guidelines and within a reasonable timeframe.
• Ahpra’s internal guidance documents provided more detail than was publicly available about the factors the Board would consider in relation to the guidelines.

Complaint outcome

We consulted with Ahpra about revising publicly available information regarding the guidelines. We suggested that public information should reflect the comprehensive list of factors considered by the Board when assessing applications for a change in supervision level, as outlined in internal guidance documents. Ahpra agreed to consider this suggestion when undertaking its next scheduled review of the guidelines.

In the interim, Ahpra advised that a fact sheet would be published to provide more information about these factors to applicants. Our office was satisfied that this would help improve the experience for future applicants and ensure more transparency in the decision-making process.