Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity – Northern Territory Department of Health Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Committee) Declaration 2023 (Cth)

Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity - Northern Territory Department of Health Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Committee) Declaration 2023

I, Michael Kidd, delegate for the Minister for Health and Aged Care, make the following declaration under section 124X of the Health Insurance Act 1973.

Dated       22 May 2023          

Professor Michael Kidd AM

A/g Chief Medical Officer

Department of Health and Aged Care

Contents

Part 1—Preliminary   1

1  Name........................................................................................................................................ 1

2  Commencement........................................................................................................................ 1

3  Authority.................................................................................................................................. 1

4  Repeal ...................................................................................................................................... 1

5  Schedule................................................................................................................................... 1

Schedule 1—Description of quality assurance activity  2

1  Name of activity ...................................................................................................................... 2

2  Description of activity.............................................................................................................. 2

Part 1—Preliminary

1  Name

This instrument is the Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity – Northern Territory Department of Health Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Committee) Declaration 2023.

2  Commencement

(1) Each provision of this instrument specified in column 1 of the table commences, or is taken to have commenced, in accordance with column 2 of the table. Any other statement in column 2 has effect according to its terms.

Commencement information
Column 1	Column 2	Column 3
Provisions	Commencement	Date/Details
1.  The whole of this instrument	The day after this instrument is registered.

Note:    This table relates only to the provisions of this instrument as originally made. It will not be amended to deal with any later amendments of this instrument.

(2) Any information in column 3 of the table is not part of this instrument. Information may be inserted in this column, or information in it may be edited, in any published version of this instrument.

3  Authority

This instrument is made under subsection 124X(1) of the Health Insurance Act 1973.

4  Repeal

This instrument is repealed when it ceases to be in force in accordance with subsection 124X(4) of the Health Insurance Act 1973.

5  Schedule

The quality assurance activity described in the Schedule to this declaration is, to the extent that the quality assurance activity relates to health services provided in Australia, declared to be a quality assurance activity to which Part VC of the Health Insurance Act 1973 applies.

Schedule 1—Description of quality assurance activity

1  Name of activity

The name of the quality assurance activity is the Northern Territory Department of Health Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Committee.

2  Description of activity

The Northern Territory (NT) Department of Health PaMM Committee (Activity) involves the review of perinatal and maternal deaths and cases of substantial morbidity that occur in the NT public health system to identify the single most important factor leading to the chain of events resulting in the death or morbidity event.

This clinician-led review is performed initially at local Mortality and Morbidity meetings where potential contributing factors are identified. Review, analysis and assessment occurs by participants about the factors that may have contributed to the events. Two to three events are subject to subsequent PaMM Committee discussion and reflection, which includes reviewing relevant professional evidence and available literature.

The PaMM Committee analyses these events and, where appropriate, makes recommendations about changes or improvements to policies, procedures, guidelines or practice relating to the provision of health services in order to prevent or reduce the likelihood of the same type of event occurring again.

The recommendations are communicated by the PaMM Committee to the NT Health Clinical Governance Committee and the NT Maternal and Newborn Network for dissemination to and action by relevant services. The recommendations are kept on an action register maintained by the PaMM secretariat and chair. Implementation is monitored and outcomes are reported in the annual report.

The number of cases reviewed, high level process information about individual cases and recommendations will be published in the NT Department of Health annual report, and annually in the NT Department of Health’s Clinical Quality and Patient Safety Surveillance Report for the Health Services and Chief Executive Officer. Information will not be published if it could identify a person either directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication.