AI technology is rapidly becoming integrated into many areas of healthcare, including to diagnose and treat patients or clients. New AI tools such as medical scribing are becoming more established within practices to assist in preparation of clinical documentation and...
Health Blog
Disability Royal Commission – The Government Responds
An overview of the key takeaway points for service providers can be found here. Commonwealth Response On Wednesday, 31 July 2024, the Commonwealth released its response to the Royal Commission Final Report. Of the 222 recommendations, 172 recommendations were...
New privacy laws for Western Australia’s public sector on the way
Overview of the PRIS Bill Privacy Framework The PRIS Bill introduces a framework to protect the privacy of personal information managed by public entities, ministers, parliamentary secretaries, and contracted service providers[i]. The framework is grounded in the...
Navigating the complexities of fee recovery in practice – strategies for risk management
Complaints and legal claims can add stress to the practitioner’s life, disrupts and detracts from the provision of services, adversely affects the practice’s reputation and the legal costs in responding to the complaints and / or legal claims often exceeds the fees...
The fallibility of memory – why good clinical notes can be the best defence to a claim
The decision involved Mr Ronan Boothman (the Plaintiff) who commenced proceedings against his chiropractor, Dr Christopher George (the Defendant). After straining his back whilst surfing, the Plaintiff attended upon the Defendant for treatment, which he alleged was...
Is Your Organisation Complying the Positive Duty to Eliminate Unlawful Sex Discrimination in the Workplace?
The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (the Act), now obliges Australian employers and persons conducting a business to take “reasonable and proportionate measures” to eliminate, as far as is possible, the following behaviours: discrimination on the ground of sex in a work...
New National Law
Western Australia has now adopted the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, set out in the Schedule to the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act 2009 (Qld), as it stood on 10 October 2023 with modifications, as a law of Western Australia. The...
How much is a claim worth?
The assessment of damages is largely a mathematical process. However, variables specific to individual plaintiffs must be factored in. These variables include matters such as the age of the plaintiff at the time of injury and how long they may be expected to live....
Dental Student wins Appeal against University’s Decision to Exclude from Clinical Units
Background The appellant was enrolled in the Dental Medicine degree at the University of Western Australia (University). In 2019, he failed two units which involved participating in a clinical placement at the Dental Health Service (DHS) operated by the North...
Junior Doctors win $230 million settlement with NSW Health in Class Action
Background In December 2020, Dr Amireh Fakhouri filed a class action against the NSW Ministry of Health and the State of NSW covering junior medical officers who worked between 16 December 2014 and 21 March 2024. In a statement of claim, she alleged NSW Health failed...