EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1986 NO. 47
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 inter alia 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 “private table” in relation to a registered health benefits organisation to include 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”.
The regulation prescribes the Sydney Day Surgery for the purposes of paragraph (b) of the definition of “day hospital facility” in sub-section 4(1) of the Act.
There is at present no New South Wales legislation providing for registration of day hospitals and 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 Sydney Day Surgery has been prescribed as an interim measure only, pending proposed amendments to New South Wales legislation which would permit it to become registered as a hospital. It could then be a “day hospital facility” under paragraph (a) of the definition without the need for a regulation.