Australia Calls On 40,000 Former Health Professionals Amid COVID-19 Outbreak

Sumaira FH Published April 02, 2020 | 02:10 PM

Australia rolled out a plan to quickly add over 40,000 former health practitioners to join the frontline battle against COVID-19

SYDNEY, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Apr, 2020 ) :Australia rolled out a plan to quickly add over 40,000 former health practitioners to join the frontline battle against COVID-19.

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) and National Boards announced on Wednesday that a new sub-register had been created to allow experienced and qualified former health practitioners quickly back to practice.

Over 40,000 qualified former doctors, nurses, midwives and pharmacists who previously held general or specialist registration would be automatically listed, however could opt out at any time, for any reason.

For those wishing to stay, there would be no fees or normal return to practice requirement for them to remain in the sub-register.

"We want more of our critical health practitioners available to work as part of the health system in responding to the pandemic," AHPRA chief executive Martin Fletcher said.

However, "registered practitioners who were subject to regulatory action in the past three years will not be re-registered," he said.

The short-term pandemic response sub-register was set to be in operational from April 6 and would last for 12 months.