Irene's story

Irene raised concerns with the Ombudsman about how Ahpra and the Board handled the notifications she made about two registered health practitioners. Irene disagreed with the Board’s decisions not to take further action and was concerned that the new information she had provided to Ahpra had not been appropriately considered.

We investigated Irene’s concerns to determine whether it was reasonably open to the Board to take no further action in relation to one practitioner and not open a new notification in relation to the other. We also sought to determine whether it was open to Ahpra to find that the additional information the complainant provided did not constitute ‘new’ information that should be considered by the Board.

Our investigation found that the Board had not expressed clear reasons for its decisions to take no further action in relation to one practitioner and not open a new notification about the other practitioner. We could therefore not be satisfied that it was reasonably open to the Board to make its decisions.

After consulting with Ahpra, we recommended that this matter be returned to the Board to obtain clearer reasons for its decisions. Ahpra accepted this recommendation.