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Bill Madden

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With the commencement of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 (Vic) today, a Board has been appointed to review and monitor voluntary assisted dying activities in Victoria. The Board members are listed online. Its responsibilities include: promoting and ensuring compliance with the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 reporting to Parliament and referring any potential issues or breaches to the appropriate authorities collecting data about voluntary assisted dying providing information to the community while maintaining the…
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An article by Robertson, Clark & Davoren (ABC news) suggests that the Health Care Complaints Commission (NSW) has said that it does not have the power to investigate complaints about medical practitioners providing reports, in the context of Family Court proceedings. The article states: In the case of the Sydney psychiatrist, up to a dozen parents made complaints to the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC), accusing him of “placing the public at risk” with his Family Court…
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Gavan v FSS Trustee Corporation [2019] NSWSC 667 arose in the context of a TPD insurance claim. The interlocutory decision considered an application to be excused from compliance with a Notice to Produce for: 1.   A copy of this Notice to Produce and the notice and declaration completed by you. 2.   All ‘Records’ from your Facebook account, irrespective if it is currently active, de-activated or suspended, from 17 March 2009 to date, irrespective of what ‘screen name’ you…
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Burchell and National Disability Insurance Agency [2019] AATA 1256 concerned funding for an eating plan for an applicant with dysphagia as a result of cerebral palsy and cannot swallow properly. The NDIA declined to fund the eating plan and before the Tribunal argued  that the support requested is health-related, and that health-related supports will not be funded under the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (Cth) (the Act), even if the health system does not…
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A new paper by Matthew Spittal, Marie Bismark & David Studdert covers all health professions (not just medical practitioners) and uses data from AHPRA rather than the health complaints commissioners. Identification of practitioners at high risk of complaints to health profession regulators reports on a study of 715,415 registered health practitioners (55% nurses, 15% doctors, 6% midwives, 5% psychologists, 4% pharmacists, 15% other). The algorithm, PRONE-HP (Predicted Risk of New Event for Health Practitioners),…
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Jane Campbell has recently written on the matter of Williams v Hoang [2019] ACTSC 144.  A settlement between the parties had been approved, so the issue before the court was whether the settlement amount should be managed by a specific private trustee, or whether the monies should be managed by the default public trustee. The court accepted that long term fund management by a private trustee may be significantly more expensive than if the Public Trustee were…
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Makaroff v Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District [2019] NSWSC 715 arose following the plaintiff having suffered an arm dislocation. The allegations concerned failure to order imaging to identify a rotator cuff injury, failure to advise as to care of the shoulder injury and failure to make a referral to an orthopaedic surgeon. Also considered was whether the plaintiff exacerbated her injury by performing farm work against medical advice. The judgment appears to follow the…
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Registered Midwife, RM A 18HDC01578 is a report by the Health and Disability Commissioner (NZ) regarding labour management. Ms B asked for pethidine. RM A drew up a syringe of either water or normal saline and told Ms D and RM C, a core midwife, that she was going to give Ms B some of the intravenous (IV) fluid via a syringe, but would tell Ms B that it was pethidine. RM A said she…
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Cowie v Quinn [2019] SADC 71 was an application for review of a Magistrate’s Court decision, dismissing a claim for medical negligence. The key allegation made by the plaintiff was that he suffered a severe reaction to the cryotherapy procedure, and that if he had been fully informed by the defendant of the possibility of such a reaction he would not have proceeded with the procedure on that day. The patient failed to prove that…