The Physiotherapy Board of Australia and Ahpra regularly publish court and tribunal summaries for the purpose of professional education.

We encourage all practitioners to read relevant tribunal outcomes and case studies on the Ahpra and National Boards’ websites.

While complaints about physiotherapists are rare, they most commonly relate to clinical care, followed by practitioner–patient boundary violations and communication.

Physiotherapy Board Chair Kim Gibson says that the Board supports practitioners by helping them understand their professional and legal obligations and takes action when required if patient safety is at risk, including referring matters to a tribunal.

‘We publish tribunal outcomes so physiotherapists can see what is expected of the profession and the potential consequences of not practising safely or professionally,’ Kim says.

Recent lessons

A recent tribunal decision relates to a registered physiotherapist who was found to have engaged in professional misconduct and unprofessional conduct while working as a hospital clinical services director between 2009 and 2015.

The tribunal found that the woman, who has not been registered since 2016 and is now retired, failed in key aspects of her former role at the hospital.

In May this year, she was reprimanded and disqualified from practising as a physiotherapist for two years.

Among the proven allegations was that the woman failed to ensure the effective investigation, management and analysis of incidents reported and referred by staff and, in particular, failed to take appropriate action to ensure that significant incidents at the hospital were subject to appropriate clinical review.

How the tribunal applied the National Law governing physiotherapy practice

Although the woman’s registration as a physiotherapist was not a requirement of her role at the hospital, the tribunal ultimately found that her conduct fell under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, which governs the profession.

The tribunal decision states, ‘This was principally because of the definition of “practice” in the Physiotherapy Board of Australia Code of Practice (Code), which extends beyond the provision of direct clinical care and includes working in a management or administrative role’.

Other cases

In the 2020/21 financial year, 140 notifications (complaints) were lodged with Ahpra in relation to physiotherapists.

The majority (71.5 per cent) led to no further action and less than 10 per cent led to conditions being imposed on a practitioner’s registration.

Half of all notifications were made by patients, their families and other members of the public; more than 14 per cent came to Ahpra and the Board via other health complaints entities; and more than 11 per cent came from other practitioners.

Click here to see the annual reports page of the Ahpra website for more information.

In 2020, a registered physiotherapist was reprimanded, had his registration cancelled and was disqualified from applying for registration for three months after a tribunal found he had engaged in professional misconduct.

The physiotherapist had misappropriated pages of blank prescription pads from medical practitioners at the hospital where he worked and then forged their signatures to obtain, or attempt to obtain, prescription medication by deception.

In 2017, a tribunal found that a physiotherapist had been fraudulent and deceptive.

The practitioner had backdated patient visits to facilitate claims on Medicare under the Enhanced Primary Care Program, had split claims to private health insurers for a single long consultation into two short consultations on separate dates to maximise the level of rebate and had kept inadequate clinical records.

The tribunal reprimanded the practitioner, suspended her registration for 18 months and placed conditions on her to complete education and training before the suspension ceased.

In 2014, a physiotherapist was reprimanded and had his registration suspended for two months for professional misconduct after violating a practitioner–patient boundary by conducting a sexual relationship with a patient over a 14-month period.

The physiotherapist was required to complete a course of education addressing professional boundary management issues with patients and to undertake a 12-month mentoring program.

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Click here for more about the notifications process and here for news summaries about the outcomes of court and tribunal hearings involving registered health practitioners. Refer to the Health Care Complaints Commission here for decisions about practitioners based in New South Wales.