Paramedicine to be regulated from 1 Dec

Commencing 1 December 2018, the title ‘paramedic’ will be protected by law when paramedicine becomes a nationally regulated profession.

This means that only people who are registered with the Paramedicine Board of Australia (the National Board) will be able to lawfully call themselves a paramedic.

All Australian paramedics must be registered with the National Board when regulation starts — or have applied for registration.

“Paramedics are an incredibly important part of the health system. Registering under the national scheme of regulation means each individual paramedic meets national standards and is suitably trained and qualified. And that’s good news for everyone,” National Board Chair Associate Professor Stephen Gough ASM said.

“If you’re a paramedic who hasn’t applied for registration with the Paramedicine Board by 1 December, and you continue to call yourself a paramedic, you could face penalties,” Associate Professor Gough said.

National regulation is an important change for the profession.

For the public it means being assured that a person calling themselves a paramedic is suitably trained and qualified to practise the profession and has met the national standards for registration.

The Chief Executive of AHPRA, which works in partnership with the National Board, said this is an historic time for health in Australia.

“From December, paramedics will be joining an established national regulation scheme that has patient safety at its heart, which already has more than 750,000 registered health practitioners across 15 professions,” said Fletcher.

“We encourage all paramedics to begin the online registration process now so that they’re ready for regulation.”

Paramedics can find out everything they need to know about applying for registration at www.paramedicineboard.gov.au.

From December, all registered paramedics will be listed on the free online register of practitioners at www.ahpra.gov.au. If you want to see if someone is registered, you can search for them on the register.