The Health Services Award covers:

• employers in the health industry and their employees
• employees engaged as health professionals on an occupational basis.

The award doesn't define the term 'health professional', but Schedule B provides a list of common health professionals covered by the award.

This list is indicative rather than exhaustive.

Health professionals can therefore be covered by the award even if they're not included in the List of Common Health Professionals.

Whether a particular health professional employee is covered by the Health Services Award will depend on whether they're performing work of a similar nature to the work performed by the health professionals in Schedule B.

Example

Juniper is a herbalist working out of a small holistic medicine practice.

She meets with clients and prescribes and prepares plant-based remedies for various ailments.

She also develops ongoing treatment plans and lifestyle programs, monitors client health progress and makes recommendations on dietary requirements.

The List of Common Health Professionals includes naturopathists and homeopathists.

As the work that Juniper is doing is similar in nature to the work performed by these professionals, she'll be covered by the Health Services Award as a Health Professional.

See Award coverage for dentists for more information on the kinds of health professionals that could be excluded from coverage under the Health Services Award.