EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1986 NO 208
ISSUED BY AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH
NATIONAL HEALTH ACT 1953
NATIONAL HEALTH REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Section 140 of the National Health Act 1953 (‘the Act’) provides, among other things, that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters which are required or permitted to be prescribed by the Act or which are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
Sub-section 4(1) of the Act defines ‘basic private table’ or ‘basic table’ in relation to a registered health benefits organization to mean a table that includes benefits in respect of professional services rendered to in-patients or day only patients of a day hospital facility, as provided in paragraphs (da) and (dc) of the definition.
A ‘day hospital facility’ is defined in sub-section 4(1) of the Act to mean:
‘(a) premises registered as a hospital under a law of a State or Territory relating to the registration of hospitals; or
(b) premises, or premises included in a class of premises, prescribed for the purposes of this paragraph’.
Regulation 3D of the National Health Regulations already prescribed the Sydney Day Surgery for purposes of paragraph (b) of the definition of ‘day hospital facility’ in sub-section 4(1) of the Act. The purpose of this regulation is to prescribe the Hornsby Day Surgery Centre for the purpose of paragraph (b) of the definition.
There is at present no New South Wales legislation providing for registration of day hospitals. New South Wales day hospitals not part of a licensed hospital may therefore only come within the meaning of a ‘day hospital facility’ in sub-section 4(1) of the Act if prescribed by regulation.
The action to prescribe the Hornsby Day Surgery Centre as a day hospital facility is an interim measure only, on the basis of assurances from the New South Wales Minister for Health that the facility meets his Department’s guidelines on day hospital facilities and that an amendment to State legislation providing for the licensing of day hospital facilities is shortly to be introduced in the New South Wales Parliament.