Update on SMS text message alert for nurses and midwives

11 Sep 2018

Update from AHPRA and the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) on advice to registered nurses and midwives on the 3 July 2018 about concerns they were receiving relating to a SMS text message being received by practitioners.

The text messaged stated, ‘You have now passed your AHPRA Renewal and been made inactive.’

AHPRA take any incident of this nature very seriously and as part of immediate and reasonable action. Practitioners provided us with evidence that showed the SMS messages came froma platform called ShiftMatch.

As a result we advised practitioners on social media of this. Practitioners were reassured that the SMS message did not come from AHPRA, that AHPRA does not share practitioner contact details with any organisation except for law enforcement purposes and to contact their employer directly if they had any queries.

AHPRA’s investigation has concluded and established that those SMS’s were not fake and did legitimately originate from ShiftMatch. However, they did not have the endorsement of, nor did the data in those messages originate from, AHPRA.

AHPRA and National Boards appreciate it when practitioners alert them to activity that may make practitioners concerned or suspicious. This can help AHPRA identify genuine data breaches or other security issues.

Remember the data you share with AHPRA cannot be shared with a third party without your consent.