2023/24 annual summary

Medical radiation practice in 2023/24

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2023/24 annual report Download the
Board's data tables

Registration

19,851 medical radiation practitioners
- Up 4.6% from 2022/23
- 2.2% of all registered health practitioners
1,350 first-time registrants
- 956 domestic (including new graduates)
- 394 international
0.7% identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander

Gender

Female	Male
69.2%	30.8%

69.2% Female
30.8% Male

Age

<258.0%
25-3436.8%
35-4427.0%
45-5415.9%
55-649.2%
65-742.9%
75+0.1%

Divisions

Diagnostic radiographer	78.9%
Radiation therapist	14.5%
Radiation therapist	6.8%

78.9% Diagnostic radiographer
14.5% Radiation therapist
6.8% Nuclear medicine technologist

99.9% Registered in one division
0.1% Registered in two divisions

Regulation

43 notifications lodged with Ahpra about 34 medical radiation practitioners
72 notifications about 56 medical radiation practitioners made Australia-wide, including HPCA and OHO data
- 0.3% of the profession Australia-wide

Sources of notifications

53.5% Patient, relative or member of the public
16.3% Employer
14.0% Other practitioner
4.7% Board initiated
2.3% Police, government or co-regulator
9.3% Other

Most common types of complaints

27.9% Clinical care
25.6% Health impairment
14.0% Offence against other law
9.3% Boundary violation
9.3% Confidentiality
14.0% Other

Notifications closed

31 notifications closed

6.5% Conditions imposed on registration
3.2% Cautioned or reprimanded
12.9% Referred to another body or retained by a health complaints organisation
77.4% No further regulatory action (including where practitioner has taken steps to address)

9 immediate actions taken
11 mandatory notifications received
- 4 about alcohol or drugs
- 3 about impairment
- 2 about professional standards
- 2 about sexual misconduct
9 practitioners monitored for health, performance and/or conduct
4 criminal offence complaints made
No notifications decided by a tribunal
No matters decided by a panel
No appeals lodged

This year marked the midpoint of the Medical Radiation Practice Board of Australia’s three-year strategic work plan. We made significant progress in delivering benefit for patients, the public and the medical radiation practice workforce.

Visibility and awareness

Increasing visibility and awareness about regulation and medical radiation practice is an important pillar of our work plan.

We met with national and international stakeholders, including the New Zealand Medical Radiation Practice Board, the Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists, Medical Radiations Australia, the Australian Society of Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy (ASMIRT), the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nuclear Medicine (ANZSNM) and the Australian Sonographers Association. We discussed emerging issues in medical radiation practice, with a focus on workforce availability, education pipelines and capabilities necessary for professional practice.

The Board has developed a closer working relationship with the Medical Radiation Practice Council of New South Wales and looks forward to further collaboration on joint projects and presentations.

Our representatives attended a number of important conferences:

the Indigenous Allied Health Association meeting in November
the ANZSNM annual conference in Christchurch in April
the ASMIRT national conference in Darwin in May.

Symposium 2023 generates future-focused discussions

We maintain a continuous watch on issues that affect patient care, safety and the service capacity of the workforce. A key feature of the work this year was consideration of alternative models of education, rural and remote education, and scope-of-practice enablers. Many of these issues were presented and discussed at Symposium 2023, an event hosted by the Board on 27 October. More than 250 people joined us in Melbourne and online. The program included international guests, Chief Allied Health Officers, a range of health practitioners, education providers and professional associations.

The Board spent the day listening to the discussions occurring not just on the stage but also at the tables and during breaks. With the focus on issues related to capacity, capability and collaboration, there was much to discuss. A highlight of the day was questions from the audience that prompted lively and topical discussions about the future of the medical radiation practice workforce.

We have begun weaving the feedback into our work and will start with the revision of professional capabilities in 2024.

Fee setting

The Board continues to be attentive to setting registration fees to recover the costs of the efficient and effective delivery of regulatory functions in the context of our Health Profession Agreement.

Workforce safety and sustainability

We continued work on a number of practice issues including radiation use, consent and anaphylaxis. We engaged with a range of stakeholders in the development phase of this work.

We are committed to supporting the continued development of a culturally safe workforce. With the assistance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisors, we developed specific resources for practitioners and we look forward to doing more work in this area in the third year of our work plan.

Ms Cara Miller, Chair

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2023/24 annual report See the complete set of
data tables Download the
report appendices

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