EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1987 No 310
ISSUED BY AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR COMMUNITY SERVICES AND 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.
Subsection 4(1) of the Act defines “basic private table” or “basic table” in relation to a registered health benefits organisation 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), (dc) and (dd) of the definition.
That subsection also provides:
“‘day hospital facility’ means -
(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,
but does not include -
(c) a recognized hospital, a private hospital or a hospital declared by the Minister to be a hospital for the purposes of the definition of ‘hospital’ in sub-section 3(1) of the Health Insurance Act 1973: or
(d) premises, or premises included in a class of premises, prescribed for the purposes of this paragraph;”.
Regulation 3D of the National Health Regulations already prescribes four premises for the purposes of paragraph (b) of the definition of “day hospital facility” in subsection 4(1) of the Act. The purpose of this regulation is to prescribe the Brisbane Endoscopy Centre for the purposes of paragraph (b) of that definition so that patients at the Brisbane Endoscopy Centre will be eligible to receive benefits under the basic private table from a registered health benefits organisation.