Podiatry regulation at work: Protecting the public in 2015/16

09 Mar 2017

A profession-specific annual report summary that looks into the work of the Podiatry Board of Australia over the year to 30 June 2016 has now been published.

The report draws on data from the 2015/16 annual report by AHPRA and the National Boards. This information provides a snapshot of the podiatry profession as at 30 June 2016, and includes the number of applications for registration, outcomes of criminal history checks and segmentation of the registrant base by gender, age and principal place of practice.

Notifications information includes the number of complaints or concerns received about podiatrists and podiatric surgeons, matters opened and closed during the year, types of complaint, monitoring and compliance and matters involving immediate action.

Insights into the profession include:

• Of the 657,621 registered health practitioners in Australia in 2015/16, 4,655 were podiatrists (0.7% of the total registrant base). 
• 445 new applications for registration as a podiatrist or podiatric surgeon were received. 
• Registration for the podiatry profession grew by just over 6% during the year to 30 June 2016. 
• Student registration decreased by 3.6%, to 1,718 registrants. 
• 61% of podiatrists are women; 39% are men. 
• Victoria was the principal place of practice for most podiatrists (1,481). 
• The Northern Territory (NT) was home to the fewest (24). 
• The age bracket with the most podiatrists was 25-29 (991 registrants). 
• 411 podiatrists were under 25 years of age; four were aged 80 or over. 
• As part of the registration process, 814 criminal history checks were carried out for podiatrists. Of 54 disclosable court outcomes, none required regulatory action. 
• AHPRA managed 42 of the 57 notifications (complaints or concerns) received nationally about podiatrists in 2015/16. 
• On a national basis, the percentage of registered health practitioners with notifications received during the year was 1.5%. The percentage of podiatrists with notifications was 1.2%. 
• Immediate action to suspend or limit a podiatrist’s registration was taken twice in 2015/16. 
• There were 24 active monitoring cases, with most relating to suitability/eligibility for registration as a podiatrist. 
• 26 new complaints were made about possible statutory offences relating to podiatry services. Almost all were advertising concerns.

To download this report, or to view the main 2015/16 annual report and summary reports by state or territory, visit our microsite.

For more information

• Visit the AHPRA website 
• Lodge an online enquiry form 
• For registration enquiries: 1300 419 495 (within Australia) +61 3 9275 9009 (overseas callers) 
• For media enquiries: (03) 8708 9200