Medical Board of Australia v Carr (Review and Regulation) [2023] VCAT 945 (Link to AUSTLII)
A very belated noted in relation to a conduct matter, but important as it appears to have been the first which concerned voluntary assisted dying.
This case concerned a breach of the statutory requirements for the completion of a declaration by a person that they seek to access voluntary assisted dying under the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 (Vic). Under that legislation, the ‘co-ordinating medical practitioner’ has a responsibility to certify that the strict requirements of the VAD regime are satisfied, before the process may proceed. That practitioner is required to submit documents to the Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board, which oversees the VAD process.
Dr Carr was the coordinating medical practitioner for a patient seeking access to VAD in February 2020. There was an error made in the completion of the patient’s declaration of seeking access to VAD. On 6 February 2020, the patient, Dr Carr, and two witnesses were all present at Dr Carr’s medical practice.The required boxes on the form for the names, addresses and signatures of those four persons, and the date, were all completed on the patient’s written declaration, except for two of those boxes. By an oversight, and due to some distraction during the consultation, the patient did not actually sign and date the declaration on page 2.
Dr Carr submitted the form to the VADRB on 8 February 2020. On 10 February 2020 an the VADRB staff member emailed Dr Carr, asking him to arrange for the patient to sign that document, so it could progress the case. Dr Carr arranged for the patient to attend his practice again, on 11 February 2020. This time, the patient attended alone. The patient inserted the missing signature, and dated the form 6 February 2020. The form was submitted to the VADRB, and the VAD process continued to completion. Using a drug prescribed by Dr Carr, the patient brought about their death on 1 April 2020.
It followed that the signing of the patient’s declaration had not been witnessed by the two witnesses. Dr Carr accepted full responsibility for his errors in the conduct of the VAD process for this patient.
Dr Carr admitted that his actions comprise professional misconduct and the parties jointly sought determinations that he be reprimand, and fined $12,000.
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