An Act to amend the Medical Practice Act 1992 and the Health Care Complaints Act 1993 with respect to the principles of administration of and the exercise of disciplinary powers under those Acts; and for other purposes.
This Act is the Medical Practice Amendment Act 2008.
This Act commences on a day or days to be appointed by proclamation.
The Medical Practice Act 1992 is amended as set out in Schedule 1.
The Health Care Complaints Act 1993 is amended as set out in Schedule 2.
This Act is repealed on the day following the day on which all of the provisions of this Act have commenced.
The repeal of this Act does not, because of the operation of section 30 of the Interpretation Act 1987, affect any amendment made by this Act.
(Section 3)
Omit the section. Insert instead:
The object of this Act is to protect the health and safety of the public.
The object of this Act is achieved by providing mechanisms designed to ensure that:
(a) medical practitioners are fit to practise medicine, and
(b) medical students are fit to undertake medical studies and clinical placements.
In the exercise of functions under this Act the protection of the health and safety of the public is to be the paramount consideration.
Insert “, whether or not the practitioner has been prosecuted for or convicted of an offence in respect of the contravention” after “regulations” in section 36 (1) (b).
Omit the section. Insert instead:
For the purposes of this Act,
(a) unsatisfactory professional conduct, or
(b) more than one instance of unsatisfactory professional conduct that, when the instances are considered together, amount to conduct,
of a sufficiently serious nature to justify suspension of the practitioner from practising medicine or the removal of the practitioner’s name from the Register.
Insert after section 46:
If a person makes a complaint, and does so in good faith:
(a) the making of the complaint does not constitute a breach of professional etiquette or ethics or a departure from accepted standards of professional conduct, and
(b) no liability for defamation is incurred because of the complaint, and
(c) the making of the complaint does not constitute a ground for civil proceedings for malicious prosecution or for conspiracy.
The protections given to a complainant by this section extend to:
(a) any person who, in good faith, provided the complainant with any information on the basis of which the complaint was made, and