Root cause analysis changes in NSW

The Meridian Lawyers blog has published a summary of forthcoming changes in NSW, in an article entitled NSW Health Services Organisations face key changes to Root Cause Analysis procedures. The article explains: Under the new provisions, NSW health services organisations must conduct a preliminary assessment when an incident is reported, if the organisation is of the …

Duties of care + employees

Last week the High Court of Australia was due to hear oral argument in the matter of Govier v The Uniting Church in Australia Property Trust. The issue of principle was to be whether an employer may owe a duty of care to an employee when conducting an investigative process. The employee alleged that she suffered …

Chiropractic treatment claim

Zhang v Hardas (No 2) [2018] NSWSC 432 is a decision published today of Leeming JA, who was sitting as a trial judge in the Common Law Division of the Court for the purposes of this matter. The court held at [106]: My findings on the way in which Mr Hardas treated Ms Zhang are …

The peer opinion provision + irrationality

South Western Sydney Local Health District v Gould [2018] NSWCA 69 is a decision of the NSW Court of Appeal published today, dealing with the standard of care for professionals and the irrational exception under section 5O of the Civil Liability Act 2002 (NSW). The primary judgment was that of Leeming JA, with Basten and …

Decision by specialist medical college to expel from fellowship training program

Lukac v The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists [2018] NSWSC 436 saw the plaintiff medical practitioner seek declarations that she was denied procedural fairness by the Appeals Committee of the College, that the decision of the Appeals Committee was void, and in the alternative an order setting aside the decision of …

Stillbirth mental harm claims

KS and XT v Calvary Health Care ACT trading as Calvary Hospital and Dr Andrew Foote [2018] ACTSC 84 is a recent decision of the ACT Supreme Court dealing with claims by a mother and a father for mental harm, following the still birth of their daughter, who had apparently died in the lead up …

Pending: High Court consideration of duties of care

With thanks to Associate Professor Tina Cockburn for pointing out that later this week (on 13 April 2018) the High Court will hear oral argument in the matter of Govier v The Uniting Church in Australia Property Trust. The issue of principle is whether an employer may owe a duty of care to an employee …

Sentencing of naturopath for advice regarding care of child

"...The criminal law does not often get involved in the choice of a person to give or to accept advice based on alternatives to conventional medicine. Thus people are perfectly entitled to portray themselves as able to cure illnesses through the placement of crystals on the body, the use of highly diluted solutions, and the …

Posthumous sperm transfer out of jurisdiction

With thanks to Phil Gleeson for noting  the recent decision GLS v Russell-Weisz & Ors [2018] WASC 79, another decision dealing with property in gametes extracted post-humously and the right to direct the transfer of those gametes to another jurisdiction - from Western Australia to the Australian Capital Territory.  The plaintiff (de facto partner of …

Transvaginal mesh report

With thanks to Joshua Dale for noting the release of the Australian Senate Community Affairs Reference committee report, somewhat awkwardly named "Number of women in Australia who have had transvaginal mesh implants and related matters". The committee received some 555 submissions, though a number were on a confidential or name withheld basis. The report makes …