Introduction
Background
In 1990, the Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council commissioned the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare to develop national health labour force statistics about the major registrable health professions. Data collections based on a national minimum data set were developed addressing the labour force planning needs of the health professions, government, service providers and educational institutions. In addition to medicine, published data from the collection are available for dentistry, pharmacy, podiatry, physiotherapy and nursing.
Scope and coverage
The scope of the data is all practitioners registered with the Medical Board in each State and Territory and eligible to practise.
In some States, the coverage may exclude medical practitioners who registered for the first time during the current year. These practitioners are not required to renew their registration at the standard renewal date if the initial registration in that State has occurred within the preceding year.