Few pieces of mail unsettle a clinician like a letter from the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. A notification does not mean you have done anything wrong, and the great majority close with no action against the practitioner. But what you do in the first two days shapes everything that follows. This is a calm, practical guide to those first 48 hours.
What a notification actually is
AHPRA receives notifications on behalf of the National Boards, including the Medical Board of Australia. A notification is a concern raised about a practitioner’s health, conduct or performance — by a patient, a family member, a colleague, an employer, or another regulator. It is a regulatory process, not a civil claim for compensation. Its purpose is to protect the public, not to punish, and the Board has a graded range of outcomes available, the most common of which is to take no further action.
It helps to separate the two streams you may face. A notification is the regulatory pathway through AHPRA and the Board. A claimis a civil demand for damages. They can arise from the same incident, run in parallel, and require different responses — which is exactly why early advice matters.
Hour zero to two: read, breathe, and do not reply yet
Read the letter twice. Identify three things: what is alleged, which Board is involved, and the date by which a response is required — typically a fixed number of days, and it is firm. Resist the strong urge to phone the notifier, email an explanation, or amend the medical record. An off-the-cuff response, however reasonable it feels, can be the most damaging single act in the entire process.
The instinct to “just clear this up” with a quick call to the patient is the instinct to resist hardest. Pick up the phone to your indemnity adviser instead.
The same day: call your medico-legal adviser
This is the single most important step. Contact your indemnity insurer’s medico-legal advice line the day the notification arrives. A 24/7 line exists precisely for this moment. An experienced adviser will help you understand what the Board is asking, what an immediate action or interim restriction might look like, and how to frame your response so it is accurate, complete and properly contextualised. You should not draft your response alone.
- Note the time and date the notification was received — this anchors your deadline.
- Ask whether the matter triggers any mandatory notification obligations of your own.
- Confirm who will correspond with AHPRA on your behalf, and through which channel.
The record: preserve, never rewrite
Secure a complete copy of the relevant clinical record as it stands today. Do not alter, backdate, delete or “tidy” any entry — metadata in modern practice software captures every edit, and a retrospective change reads as concealment even when it was innocent. If a genuine clarification is needed, it is added as a clearly dated late entry, never woven into the original note. Your adviser will guide the wording.
What you can do
While you wait for advice, you can quietly assemble the context: the appointment history, relevant correspondence, referral letters, pathology, and any practice protocols that were in force at the time. Write a private timeline of events for your own recollection, marked for your adviser, so the sequence is fresh before memory fades. Keep it factual.
Drafting your response
A strong response is measured, reflective and specific. It addresses each concern directly, explains your clinical reasoning at the time on the information then available, and demonstrates insight without defensiveness or blame. Boards respond well to a practitioner who engages constructively and shows what, if anything, has changed in their practice since. They respond poorly to minimisation, evasion or attacks on the notifier. Your indemnity team will usually review or co-author the response before it is lodged.
Looking after yourself
A notification is genuinely stressful, and that stress can itself affect your work. Tell a trusted colleague or your own GP, and use a confidential practitioner support service if you need one. Looking after your own health is not a distraction from the process — it is part of practising safely while it runs its course.
The takeaways
- Do not contact the notifier or change the record.
- Call your medico-legal adviser the same day — do not respond alone.
- Diarise the response deadline immediately; it is firm.
- Preserve the record as it stands and gather context, not corrections.
- Most notifications close with no action — engage calmly and well.
If a notification lands, Praxis members reach a medico-legal adviser at any hour, and Praxis Law can act for you from the first letter through to resolution. See how member support works.