Health regulation has also been discussed with the release of Dawson review, Transforming health professions regulation in Australia: Independent Review Final Report. This report acknowledges the frustration and distress experienced by practitioners and consumers under existing arrangements. It recognises the voices of educators, practitioners and consumers must inform strategic direction the community needs to have a stronger voice to inform the National Scheme.
Many things struck me in reading this report. Most notably that there is shared dissatisfaction with the way complaints are handled and this is felt equally deeply by consumers and practitioners. Dawson describes this as “a significant challenge to the integrity of health practitioner regulation."
The report also identifies another issue for consumers which relates to the risks associated with non-registered practitioners who are delivering health services in areas where there is not a formal training and qualification requirement or accreditation, and no protective structures (such as worker screening, qualification checks, supervision, or performance management) are significant.
This underscores the importance of immediately rolling out the National Code of Conduct for non-registered health practitioners and a National Register of Prohibition Orders across Australia. In the ACT we have has implemented this Code of Conduct, requiring unregistered health workers like massage therapists, counsellors, and beauticians to display the code and complaint information, with complaints handled by the Health Services Commission. | 
