The Report, released on 14 June 2017, follows an inquiry held to identify and model best-practice legal frameworks to promote and support older people and protect against misuse or advantage taken of formal or informal supporter roles. Elder abuse is defined as a...
aged care
Premature Deaths of Nursing Home Residents
The study published in the recent Medical Journal of Australia examined nursing home residents whose deaths had been reported to state coroners from 2001-2013. The study found that the incidence of premature (death which occurred sooner than necessary) and preventable...
New Privacy Act Data Breach Obligations Update
Eligible Data Breaches The Act sets up a scheme for notification of ‘eligible data breaches’. An eligible data breach happens if: there is unauthorised access to, unauthorised disclosure of, or loss of, personal information held by an entity; and the access,...
WA HACC Transition to Commonwealth
A new arrangement for home and community care and specialist disability services will come into effect from 1 July 2018, with the Commonwealth Government assuming full funding, policy and operational responsibility for these services, bringing Western Australia into...
Unsigned Resident Agreements: what does this mean for aged care providers?
Aged Care Act requirements for Resident Agreements The Aged Care Act 1997 (Act) says a provider must give all prospective residents or their representatives an accommodation/resident agreement (Agreement) prior to entering care. The Agreement must set out that the...
Notifiable Data Breaches – New reporting obligations proposed for entities under the Privacy Act
The Privacy Amendment (Notifiable Data Breaches) Bill 2016 (‘the Bill’) was introduced in the Australian Parliament on 19 October 2016 and is currently before the House of Representatives. The Bill proposes mandatory data breach notification provisions for agencies,...
Bleach treatment of elderly patient leads to disciplinary action
A NSW Professional Standards Committee recently found a Registered Nurse guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct in relation to a complaint about her care and treatment of a patient in an Aged Care Service. The patient was an elderly lady with deteriorating...
Importance of providing coroner with detailed evidence of root cause analysis and corrective action
The inquest In Inquest into the death of Michael James Calder, Deputy State Coroner Lock of the Coroners Court in Queensland considered the circumstances of Mr Calder’s death in the Holy Spirit Northside Private Hospital (hospital) in July 2014. Mr Calder was aged 33...
Are you ready for the new business-to-business unfair contract term laws?
ACCC Deputy Chair Dr Michael Schaper has explained that ”the new law will apply when a term in a small business standard form contract: causes a significant imbalance in the parties’ rights and obligations isn’t reasonably necessary to protect the legitimate interests...
Nurses disciplined for using restraints on vulnerable patient with dementia
The patient was initially restrained for some two hours in the Ward’s lounge room. Thereafter while he was still being restrained in a chair by means of a pelvic posey, the two nurses used a second pelvic posey to fasten the chair to railing in a corridor near the...