For the first time in Australia, paramedics will soon be required to be registered and accredited in every State and Territory.
A newly established Paramedicine Board of Australia, featuring representation from Western Australia, will develop minimum standards to ensure our paramedics receive the same high-quality training and continuous professional development, regardless of where they work and live.
The registration of paramedics forms part of a suite of measures contained within the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (WA) Amendment Act 2017 that amends the ‘WA National Law’. The Amendment Act has now completed its passage through our Parliament in line with other States and Territories.
The National Law and WA National Law are a COAG Health Council initiative, a national scheme designed to ensure that Australia’s health practitioners meet a national benchmark of training, safe practice and registration, providing assurance to consumers that our dedicated professionals can, and will continue to deliver, the highest standards of care in our communities.
This streamlined regulatory framework ensures that only health practitioners, who are appropriately qualified to practise in a competent and ethical manner, can obtain registration, which will be renewed annually.
The national scheme has been in place since 2010; it initially started with 10 health professions. This was expanded to 14 and includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practice, Chinese medicine, chiropractic, dental, medical, medical radiation practice, nursing and midwifery, occupational therapy, optometry, osteopathy, pharmacy, physiotherapy, podiatry, and psychology.
The addition of paramedics expands the number of professions covered by the scheme.
Image: Paramedics transport a mock-victim during a mass casualty exercise. Credit: Chris Wagner at en.wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], from Wikimedia Commons