SACAT hears and determines disciplinary actions against health practitioners under the Health Practitioners Regulation National Law (South Australia) Act 2010

What can SACAT do?

SACAT can receive applications for disciplinary action by the relevant national board where the board reasonably believes that the health practitioner has behaved in a way that constitutes professional misconduct. SACAT may also review registration and disciplinary decisions of the Pharmacy Regulation Authority SA under the Act.

A member of the public may not make an application to SACAT with respect to discipline of a health practitioner under the National Law. However, any person may make a notification to the relevant national board about the conduct, competence, fitness or impairment of a registered, or formerly registered, health practitioner.

Under the Act, SACAT has the power to

  • caution or reprimand the practitioner
  • impose a condition on the practitioner's registration, including, for example a condition requiring the practitioner to
    • complete specified further education or training, or to undergo counselling, within a specified period
    • undertake a specified period of supervised practice
    • do, or refrain from doing, something in connection with the practitioner's practice
    • manage the practitioner's practice in a specified way
    • report to a specified person at specified times about the practitioner's practice
    • not employ, engage or recommend a specified person, or class of persons
  • require the practitioner to pay a fine of not more than $30,000 to the National Board that registers the practitioner
  • suspend the practitioner's registration for a specified period
  • cancel the practitioner's registration.

If SACAT decides to impose a condition on the practitioner's registration, the tribunal must also decide a review period for the condition.

If SACAT decides to cancel a person's registration under this Law or the person does not hold registration under this Law, the tribunal may also decide to—

  • disqualify the person from applying for registration as a registered health practitioner for a specified period
  • prohibit the person, either permanently or for a stated period, from doing either or both of the following—
    • providing any health service or a specified health service
    • using any title or a specified title.
  • impose restrictions, either permanently or for a stated period, on the provision of  any health service or specified health service

Applying for disciplinary action

When applying to SACAT you must be in a position to:

  • identify the legislative provision(s) you rely on
  • state and describe the conduct said to justify the disciplinary findings, and identify the relevant legislative provisions relied upon
  • identify the facts, acts or omissions alleged to constitute the conduct that justifies the disciplinary finding
  • provide any supporting documents
  • pay any relevant application fees.

  1. Start an online application .
  2. In the keyword field in Step 2, type the word ‘health' as shown below.
  3. If you are not sure you have selected the correct application type, you can hover over the ‘question mark’ on the right-hand side to see a brief description.

There is no fee to lodge a disciplinary complaint with SACAT under the Health Practitioners Regulation National Law (South Australia) Act 2010.

I need more help

If you have further questions call SACAT on 1800 723 767.

A staff member from SACAT can also help you complete your application over the phone.

SACAT can also review certain decisions made under Health Practitioners Regulation National Law (South Australia) Act 2010.