Board retires Guidelines on clinical records

12 Aug 2025

The Osteopathy Board of Australia (the Board) will retire its Guidelines on clinical records on 1 December 2025.

The guidelines were introduced in 2012 and the decision to retire them follows a public consultation on reviewing the guidelines earlier this year.

In its consultation guidance, the Board noted the guidelines:

• could be considered overly prescriptive
• included outdated references
• didn’t align with the Board’s regulatory principles of responsive and risk-based regulation.

The majority of respondents to the consultation supported the Board’s preferred option to retire the guidelines.

Where to find information about record keeping

Osteopaths are encouraged to review the shared Code of conduct which includes regulatory guidance on record keeping.

Additional resources to support practitioners to meet their professional obligations are available at Managing Health Records and on the Codes and guidelines webpage and include:

• Managing health records – Self-reflective tool
• Managing health records – Summary of obligations