No images? Click here Occupational Therapy Council of NSW Newsletter 2023Dear Colleagues Welcome to the 2023 edition of the Occupational Therapy Council of NSW newsletter. In this edition we have focused on the role of the Council in managing complaints concerning Occupational Therapists in NSW and we share with you some of the recurrent issues related to the professional obligations of registered practitioners we have encountered during the last twelve months. These obligations include notifying Ahpra about certain events; ensuring Ahpra has your current contact details and principal place of practice; managing CPD records; ensuring you are covered by appropriate professional indemnity insurance; and maintaining appropriate and professional health care records. The Council is currently looking to appoint registered occupational therapists as Practitioner Members, and the Expression of Interest closes COB 4 August 2023. Do contact us on the details below if you are interested or require further information. On behalf of the Council, I hope the information contained in this newsletter is useful in updating your understanding of some of your key professional obligations as an Occupational Therapist. In the last twelve months we have seen increased collaboration between the fifteen Councils which cover the registered health professions in NSW under the auspices of the Health Professional Councils Authority (HPCA). This collaboration has involved joint projects, the development of shared resources, participation in collaborative professional development opportunities for Council members and input into policy development. In this regard I would take the opportunity to acknowledge the work of the Nursing and Midwifery and the Medical Radiation Practice Councils which have been instrumental in developing some of the information we are sharing with you in this newsletter. Dr Alison Wicks Expression of InterestThe Occupational Therapy Council of New South Wales is currently appointing registered occupational therapists as Practitioner Members who may:
Practitioner Members do not sit on the Council. Rather, they are contacted on an ad hoc basis to assist the Council in the above panels. Further information is available here and if you would like to express your interest as a Practitioner Member, could you please advise us by COB 4 August 2023 indicating your availability and which area/s you are willing to assist in. How does the Occupational Therapy Council manage complaints?The Council works in partnership with the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) to manage complaints about registered practitioners and students. A complaint can be made about the health, performance or conduct of a registered practitioner or student. The Council deals with complaints where the safety of the public may be at risk. The Council can refer matters to the HCCC for further investigation and HCCC can prosecute. The Council also monitors conditions placed on registered practitioners and students. This co-regulation between the HCCC and the Council is governed by the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (NSW) for the Council and the Health Care Complaints Act for the HCCC. This approach is outlined in the graphic below. When conditions are placed on a health practitioner, the Council notifies Ahpra. Practice-related conditions are publicly available on Ahpra’s National Register of Practitioners. The Council has different pathways to manage different types of complaints. Initially, the practitioner is provided the details of the complaint and asked to respond to it. The Council ensures that the assessment and decision-making processes are fair and that the outcomes are focused on protecting public safety. Further information is available on our website: · A complaint has been made about you In the 2022/23 financial year the Council has observed an increasing number of complaint notifications received. In this same period a number of complaints have been serious enough to warrant the Council making referrals to Impaired Registrants Panels, Performance Interviews and Section 150 Hearings which may take urgent interim action in order to protect the safety and well-being of the public. As at May 2023 Council had six practitioners under case management and four practitioners with conditions on their registration subject to monitoring. Providing Ahpra with Notice of Certain Events (NOCE)Under Section 130 of the National Law, it is your responsibility as a registered health practitioner to notify Ahpra if certain events occur. “Notifiable events” include if you have been charged, or convicted, with an offence that is punishable by imprisonment. These events may have the effect of restricting your ability to practise in your profession. You must notify Ahpra about a "notifiable event within seven days of the event occurring. You can do this by either writing to Ahpra or completing a form titled Notice of Certain Events Form NOCE-00. Ahpra will refer this information to the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) and the Occupational Therapy Council. It has been our experience that often practitioners exceed the seven-day requirement for making a notification. For the most part this has been due to practitioners only having a vague awareness of what constitutes a notifiable event and when to report it. A comprehensive list of what constitutes a notifiable event can be found here. When to Self-Notify Regarding Certain Events Have you changed your personal information or your principal place of practice?One of your professional obligations as a registered health professional is to ensure your personal and contact details held by Ahpra are both current and correct. In the preceding twelve months there have been occasions where Council has been unable to make contact with practitioners in relation to regulatory action which was initiated in relation to serious complaints because the contact details recorded with Ahpra were no longer correct. It is Council procedure to require practitioners to attend hearings convened under Section 150 of the National Law when there are concerns regarding the safety of the public. However, if the Council is unable to contact the practitioner because contact details are incorrect the hearing will still proceed without the practitioner being present, and decisions will be made utilising all the available evidence to hand at that time. Under the National Law the practitioner will be bound to comply with whatever regulatory action the Council imposes at the hearing in order to protect the safety of the public or which might otherwise be in the public interest. This can include the suspension of registration or imposition of conditions on registration where serious concerns exist. It is obviously our preference, and in the best interest of affected practitioners, that practitioners are contactable so that they can participate in processes which can have a significant impact on their career. Form CHPD-00 must be used for requesting a change of personal details including change of name, address, contact details and gender. (You can also change your contact information online by logging in to your Ahpra account at www.ahpra.gov.au/login) Are your CPD records up to date?Continuing professional development (CPD) is the means by which occupational therapists maintain, improve and broaden their knowledge, competence and expertise whilst developing their professional and personal qualities throughout their professional lives. CPD requirements for all occupational therapists are outlined in OTBA Registration Standard: Continuing Professional Development The Occupational Therapy Board of Australia (OTBA) recommends that you keep evidence of CPD, including self-directed learning, for a period of five years after completion of the CPD. Practitioners need to be aware that CPD records will be required when an occupational therapist is subject to audit or if they are subject to a notification or complaint. Every occupational therapist is required to record their CPD and produce evidence of this when requested by a regulator such as the Occupational Therapy Council of NSW or Ahpra. Some practitioners report challenges accessing their employer’s (or previous employer’s) records when they are asked by the Council to provide their CPD records. Therefore, it is important that you do not rely on your employer's education system or online records alone. Please ensure that you keep your own CPD records and that they are up to date. Further information about CPD requirements and record keeping including a template on how to appropriately record your CPD is provided by the Occupational Therapy Board of Australia here. Are you covered by Professional Indemnity Insurance?Having an appropriate level of Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII) is an important professional obligation for occupational therapists. Professional indemnity insurance ensures that an occupational therapist’s professional practice is insured against civil liability or loss incurred by, or arising from, a claim made against the occupational therapist for an act of negligence, error or omission on the part of the practitioner. Professional Indemnity insurance arrangements not only provide protection for the occupational therapist but they are also protective of the public by addressing the risks posed by uninsured practitioners. The Council has encountered circumstances where occupational therapists have assumed they were covered for PII by an employer without actually checking, only to subsequently find that they were not actually covered and had been practising without coverage. During any current registration period you must notify OTBA within seven days if you no longer have appropriate PII arrangements in place in relation to your practice which meet the requirements of the registration standard (section 130 of the National Law). This is a notifiable event and requires a NOCE notification to Ahpra as outlined earlier in this newsletter. Further information regarding Professional Indemnity Insurance requirements and the relevant registration standards can be found here. New resources for managing health recordsWhen Council assesses complaints, the relevant patient records are often a crucial piece of information we will seek from either the treating practitioner or the relevant health care organisation. In our experience the quality of patient records we have reviewed has been extremely variable. Appropriate record keeping is essential to both the provision of good patient care and maintaining continuity of care. In order to assist you in creating and maintaining effective health records we would like to draw your attention to new resources produced by Ahpra and seven of the National Boards, including the Occupational Therapy Board of Australia. These resources were designed to help practitioners better understand and meet their health record management obligations. These resources can be accessed via the following link - Managing health records |