AHPRA wants to put practitioners’ aliases and assumed names on its publicly searchable database.

The regulator says it should be given the power to unilaterally record anglicised and other adopted names on its register to make it easier to check the registration of people who practise under a different name to their legal one.

According to a consultation paper released by health ministers last year, AHPRA is concerned about doctors and other heath practitioners working under an assumed identity, making it hard for those making a complaint to identify them.

In the paper, it says there may be “legitimate reasons” for practising under a different name, such as safety or privacy concerns, or where practitioners with non-English-speaking backgrounds use an anglicised name in their practice.