Current Consultations

The Board undertakes wide-ranging consultation on proposals that affect the profession.

Where there are consultations open for input, they will be shown below.

Where there are consultations which have closed, they will be shown under Past Consultations, along with the submissions that were received.

Public consultation – Retiring or updating the Guidelines on Clinical Records

The Osteopathy Board of Australia is consulting on retiring or updating the Guidelines on Clinical Records.

The current Guidelines on Clinical Records have been in effect since 2012 and are due for review. The purpose of this review is to consider:

• Option 1 – Retire the guidelines
  The National Scheme has matured since the introduction of the guidelines in 2012. The regulatory principles which underpin the work of the Board encourages a responsive, risk-based approach to regulating osteopathy practitioners. The Board manages and responds to risk in a way that is proportionate. The current guidelines could be considered overly prescriptive with outdated references. It has also been used as a checklist by osteopathy practitioners which is not the intended purpose of the guidelines.
• Option 2 – Maintain the status quo
  Option 2 is to keep the current guidelines which detail the Board’s requirements for patient health record keeping. Through public consultation the Board may identify ways to improve the guidelines, including opportunities to clarify the language and structure making the guidelines easier to understand.

We invite practitioners, members of the community, employers and other stakeholders to give feedback on our proposal.

• Public consultation on the Guidelines - Osteopathy Guidelines on Clinical Records (515 KB, PDF)
• Appendix D - Response template - Public consultation - Osteopathy Guidelines for Clinical Records (167 KB, DOCX)

Released: 7 March 2025
Closes: 2 May 2025

Making a submission

To give feedback, you can either complete the:

• online consultation survey or
• feedback submission template at Appendix D and email your submission to osteoboardconsultation@ahpra.gov.au.

Please note that the questions in the online consultation survey are the same as those in the submission template. The consultation questions are also at page 5 of the consultation document.

Publication of submissions

Submissions to this consultation may be published on the Board’s website. There may be circumstances under which submissions may not be published. Published submissions will include the names of individuals and/or organisations that made the submission unless confidentiality is requested.