Duty of Candour for Healthcare Professionals for Health Practitioners facing an Ahpra notification, complaint or allegation

The conversation, checked and dated. When you knew, when the patient was told and by whom, and which of the Framework’s five elements the conversation contained — the apology in the Framework’s words, the factual explanation, the patient’s own account heard, the consequences discussed, and what is being done to prevent recurrence. Where the record shows each, say so; where an element is missing, or the conversation never happened, say what happened with candour and what now stands behind the gap: a disclosure trigger agreed with the practice, the conversation script, the note written the same day with a copy given, each dated. The course’s reflection lesson gives it the structure: a factual recount without defensiveness, the influences on what you did, the communication lapses, and the learning needs.

Yes — before you answer, and before any further conversation with the patient about the event. Your indemnity insurer or defence organisation is the first call, and a lawyer should read the response before it goes to Ahpra, your National Board, your profession’s Council of NSW or the HCCC, the OHO, or a panel or tribunal; they can advise on the wording of a disclosure or an apology without withholding either. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and no course determines the outcome of a notification.

Yes, and the Boards have said what persuades them: the disclosure made now, properly, and recorded; the apology given; an open disclosure protocol the practice follows; an audit of incidents and near misses against disclosures, repeated; CPD on candour and communication; and near misses now disclosed routinely. No provider is accredited by Ahpra or any National Board, and no course decides a matter. What the Board, a panel and a tribunal weigh is dated, targeted remediation with reflection that engages the standard — and this course is written to clause 4.5 of the shared code, the professions’ own codes and the Australian Open Disclosure Framework, so the connection is plain on the certificate and in your reflective account. Check the wording of any condition, undertaking or direction with your indemnity insurer or defence organisation, your union or professional association or a lawyer before you rely on it.

After an assessment or an investigation your Board may take no further action, caution you, accept an undertaking or impose conditions — supervision, an audit of disclosures, education (section 178) — refer you to a panel, or refer the most serious matters to a tribunal (section 193), which can reprimand, impose conditions, fine, suspend, cancel registration and disqualify (section 196). A candour matter that has become a probity matter — an account that was not true, a record amended — is among those the Boards refer; in 2024/25, 94.3% of the matters closed after a tribunal referral ended in disciplinary action. The disclosure since made and the apology given are weighed every time.

Not Ahpra, in either case. In New South Wales your profession’s Council of NSW and the Health Care Complaints Commission manage conduct, health and performance matters between them, and Ahpra does not investigate registered practitioners there. In Queensland every complaint goes first to the Office of the Health Ombudsman, which decides what it keeps and what it refers on to Ahpra and the Board. The letterhead tells you which body has your file, and the same response — the reasoning, the standard, the remediation — is what each of them reads for. The Framework and the NSQHS open disclosure standard apply in both states, and where the hospital’s incident process and the regulator’s run at the same time, the letterhead tells you which one each letter belongs to.

Five things, under the Australian Open Disclosure Framework: an apology or expression of regret including the words “I am sorry”; a factual explanation of what happened; an opportunity for the patient to relate their experience; a discussion of the potential consequences of the event; and an explanation of the steps being taken to manage the event and prevent recurrence — without speculation and without blame. A complaint can be about a missing element rather than about the whole conversation not happening, and one of the course’s case studies is exactly that: a misdiagnosis explained factually, with no apology and the patient’s distress not acknowledged.

No, and the Framework requires the words. It lists an apology or expression of regret including the words “I am sorry” or “we are sorry” as the first element of open disclosure. Saying sorry acknowledges what the patient has experienced; it is not a concession of fault, and the course is plain that a sincere apology reduces complaints and helps restore trust. Take advice from your indemnity insurer on wording if you are unsure; the course gives the words and the order to say them in.

Probably, yes. The Framework states that near miss and no-harm incidents are within the scope of open disclosure, with the approach proportionate to the circumstances and responsive to the needs of the patient, and harm may be physical, social or psychological. The judgement is about how the conversation is pitched, not whether it happens: the course treats near misses as within candour, and its assessment asks for any error or near miss a reasonable patient would want to know about to be disclosed; clause 7.1 of the shared code asks for near misses to be reported and reviewed whether or not the patient noticed.

Less different than it feels. The course groups minimising, deflecting and delaying together as avoidance behaviours, and from the patient’s side a disclosure that arrives late, after they had begun to suspect something, reads as concealment abandoned rather than as candour that was slow. Clause 4.5 asks for the explanation to be prompt as well as full. The response needs to say why the delay happened, what the patient was told when, and what has changed about how disclosure is triggered — and a late disclosure done well, and recorded, is how a delay is remediated.

Both, and they are not the same obligation. Open disclosure is an accreditation requirement for health service organisations under the NSQHS Standards, so your employer will have a policy and a process. The duty of candour is your individual professional obligation, and clause 4.5 of the shared code — 4.11 of Good medical practice, 2.4 of the NMBA codes — addresses you rather than your employer. Following the organisational process does not discharge the personal duty if the patient was never told; the practitioner involved is in the room, or the record says why not.

It depends on your profession. The shared Code of conduct is issued by twelve National Boards, and there the clause is 4.5 Adverse events and open disclosure. It does not apply to doctors, nurses, midwives or psychologists, each of whom has a separate code with the same obligation under different numbering — Good medical practice at 4.11, the NMBA codes at 2.4, and the Psychology Board’s code in force since 1 December 2025. The Australian Open Disclosure Framework applies across every profession and is published by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care; the course names which Boards use which code, so you cite your own.

They meet at clause 4.5, and they are often taken together. This course is about the conversation after something has gone wrong: the personal duty beside the organisation’s open disclosure process, the disclosure conversation step by step, the apology and its words, near misses, cultural safety, and the record of what was said. The Effective Communication course is about communication in the ordinary run of care: tone and manner, listening, the explanation the patient could follow, handover and escalation. If the letter is about what you told a patient after an adverse event, start here; if it is about how you spoke or wrote, start there.

Each National Board sets its own continuing professional development registration standard, and targeted CPD on the subject of a notification is among the remediation the Board and the tribunals recognise. The certificate records the course, the 2 CPD hours and the date, which is what a CPD portfolio needs; how the hours count towards your requirement depends on the standard’s categories, so check them.

The course is 2 CPD hours, self-paced, with twelve months’ access from purchase. The certificate is issued on completion, dated, with the course title and the CPD hours, for a response, a portfolio or your CPD record.