Insights Categories: Health

Most GPs experience infrequent offers of gifts from their patients over the course of their career. Occasional gifts of wine, home-cooked cakes, chocolates and flowers are commonplace in most GP clinics. However, some patients have a tendency to give gifts more frequently, or of greater commercial value, than others. This starts to pose difficult questions […]

In response to a growing number of deaths and harm resulting from the misuse of prescription medicines in Victoria, the government has announced that it will roll out a real-time prescription monitoring system this year. Fred IT Group has been appointed to design and develop the ‘SafeScript’ system, which is intended to provide up-to-date information […]

The Medical Board of Australia (MBA) is currently taking submissions regarding changes it proposes to make to the existing guidelines concerning sexual boundaries in the doctor-patient relationship[1] (Guidelines).  The proposed draft can be found on the Medical Board of Australia website, and will be available for community consultation until 29 March 2018. The review has […]

The Paramedicine Board of Australia has released draft registrations standards for public consultation. Now is the time for paramedics and other key stakeholders, including the public, to have their say about the standards that will govern registration when it commences later this year. The Paramedicine Board is accepting feedback on the draft registration standards until […]

On 1 November 2017 changes took effect that impact on rights of chiropractors practitioners to request spinal x-rays. The Medicare Taskforce With the view to improving health outcomes for patients, the Commonwealth Government established the Medicare Taskforce (Taskforce) in April 2015 to consider how more than 5,700 items on the Medicare Benefits Scheme (MBS) aligned […]

If there was any doubt as to who bears the burden of proof when assessing the residual earning capacity of a plaintiff, the NSW Court of Appeal has made it plain in the case of South Western Sydney Local Health District v Sorbello [2017] NSWCA 201: the onus of establishing that a plaintiff has remaining […]

Two decisions by the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal (the Tribunal) in 2017 have conveyed a firm warning to health professionals about the appropriate observance of professional boundaries with their patients. Meridian Lawyers assisted both practitioners involved in the respective hearings, one being a psychologist[1] and the other a chiropractor[2].  Although each case […]

The Victorian government has introduced a suite of legislative amendments in the form of the Health Legislation Amendment (Quality Safety) Act 2017, to help improve healthcare quality and safety across the state in both the public and private sectors. The amendments were triggered by recommendations made by Dr Stephen Duckett in his report titled “Targeting […]

The Medical Board of Australia has announced the implementation of a new Professional Performance Framework that will apply to registered medical practitioners in Australia. The Board proposes to introduce performance processes for practitioners with a record of multiple substantiated complaints against their registration, as well as for practitioners over 70 years of age. Australia does […]

In this video, originally published by BenchTV,  Principal Andrew Saxton and Anthony Bartley SC discuss the salient features of Tinnock v Murrumbidgee Local Health District (No 6) [2017] NSWSC, specifically, a phrase in a consent form, signed and read by the plaintiff, which allegedly evoked an understanding that her surgical operation might be performed by […]

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) celebrated an enforcement win in October this year, with the successful prosecution of a corporation for breaches of the advertising provisions under the Health Practitioner National Law 2009 (the ‘National Law’). Wellness Enterprises Pty Limited was found guilty in respect of 17 charges relating to unlawful advertising, and […]