Health Alert, DLA Phillips Fox, 23 August 2010
“A person who was under a guardianship order in South Australia travelled to Western Australia for medical treatment of her foot. The Public Advocate applied for the appointment of a guardian in Western Australia to assist while the represented person was resident there. The tribunal found that the woman was a person for whom a guardian could be appointed, as she was unable to make reasonable judgments about her person. However the tribunal was not satisfied of the need for a guardian in Western Australia because A South Australian guardianship order is recognised in Western Australia under the Western Australian Guardianship and Administration Act 1990.”
Find full case summary and link to decision here.
Archive for category South Australian Health Services
Judgment of The Honourable Justice Kourakis, Supreme Court of South Australia, 15 June 2010
“First defendant a resident in a high care unit of plaintiff’s facilities – first defendant informed plaintiff to end life by ceasing to take any food, water or medical treatment necessary for particular conditions suffered – first defendant proposes to give plaintiff direction not to provide nutrition, hydration and insulin – plaintiff seeks declarations which will allow it to determine the extent to which it can lawfully comply with direction of first defendant to be given to achieve stated intention – Commonwealth opposes directions sought with respect to consequences of the Aged Care Act 1997 (Cth) on the proposed course of conduct – Attorney-General (SA) supports directions sought concerning operation of certain provisions of Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 – whether there is a “matter” before the Court – whether Court has jurisdiction to make negative declarations contingent upon circumstances which may change – whether first defendant has common law right to refuse food, water and medical treatment – whether Aged Care Act 1997 (Cth) alters common law position – whether Court should make declarations sought.”
Find full decision here.
ABC News, AP, 10 June 2010
“A data tracking system for South Australian children will help measure their health and education progress, says Education Minister Jay Weatherill. The SA Government will combine information already being gathered by various departments on children from birth until they are eight. Mr Weatherill says tracking children’s progress will help researchers and policy makers deal with a range of social and health problems.”
Find article here.
COAG meeting ,19 & 20 APRIL 2010, Canberra
“The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) concluded its 29th meeting in Canberra today. The Prime Minister, Premiers, Chief Ministers and the President of the Australian Local Government Association were joined by Treasurers for the meeting. COAG, with the exception of Western Australia, reached an historic agreement on health and hospitals reform – the establishment of a National Health and Hospitals Network. This represents the most significant reform to Australia’s health and hospitals system since the introduction of Medicare, and one of the largest reforms to service delivery in the history of the Federation. …In addition, a package of $5.4 billion in reforms and investment will provide…”
Find full COAG communique here. Find transcript of COAG joint press conference here.
Find state and territory leader statements here: ACT, NT, Victoria, Queensland, SA, NSW.
Sunday Mail SA, By Claire Weaver, 11 April 2010
“Mrs Doig was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of the degenerative disease last August. She is believed to be the first female patient to be afflicted with it. Nevertheless, she had a complication-free pregnancy and Emily Rebecca Doig was born healthy at 2.82kg by caesarean-section at Hornsby Hospital on Tuesday. Despite initial doubts, the Doigs decided to go ahead with the pregnancy with the support of Mrs Doig’s parents. Fortunately, Emily does not carry her mother’s defective PSEN1 gene that would have predisposed her to the same condition in the future.”
Find article here.
Australian Health Review 34(1) 80–88 doi:10.1071/AH09784
Author: Marion Seal
“Australians are entitled to plan in advance the medical treatments they would allow in the event of incapacity using advance directives (ADs). A critical role of ADs is protecting people from unwanted inappropriate cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) at the end stage of life. Generally, ADs are enacted in the context of medical evaluation. However, first responders to a potential cardiac arrest are often non-medical, and in the absence of medical instruction, default CPR applies. That is, unless there is a clear AD CPR refusal on hand and policy supports compliance. Such policy occurs in jurisdictions where statute ADs qualifying or actioning scope is prescriptive enough for organisations to expect all health professionals to appropriately observe them. ADs under common law or similar in nature statute ADs are open to broader clinical translation because the operational criteria are set by the patient. …Amidst Australian AD review and statute reform this paper offers a perspective on the attributes of a working AD model, drawing on the Respecting Patient Choices Program (RPCP) experience at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (TQEH) under SA law. … Conceivably, the model offers a national AD option, able to deliver AD CPR refusals, as an adjunct to existing common law and statute provisions.”
Find AHR contents here.
Author Jill Pengelley, From: The Advertiser December 17, 2009 5
“TWO South Australia Pathology employees have contracted Q Fever following a breach in laboratory protocol. SA Health chief medical officer Professor Paddy Phillips said Q fever was caught from infected animals, so person-to- person spread was extremely unlikely and the risk to the public was low. He said a breach of laboratory protocols occurred five weeks ago and had been investigated.”
Find article here.
Australian Doctor | 29 October 2009
“South Australia’s parliament has moved closer than ever before to legalising voluntary euthanasia. A voluntary euthanasia bill passed the SA Upper House early on Thursday, with its author saying the proposal will become law – it’s just a matter of when.”
Read article here.
The Australian Government last night (16 September 2009) imposed sanctions on Northgate Aged Care Pty Ltd, the approved provider of The Churchill Retreat in South Australia. The Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency (The Agency) identified serious risk to the health, safety and well-being of residents during a review audit following a referral from the Department of Health and Ageing.
See article here.