HEALTH AND LAW:

- Law is a system of rules and principles, formally created and recorded over time, which governs specific
areas of human activity.
- Law is complex, with various sources, differing mechanisms for enforcement and differing areas of
jurisdiction.
- the law reflects the rights and obligations of people in the community even in private relationships.
- it provides penalties for those who do not obey it and remedies for people who have been wronged.
- the system of law is applied and enforced by the courts who give meaning and interpret the law by applying it
to a set of circumstances.

RULE OF LAW:
The rule of law requires that no one is above the law.
This includes those who make the law and enforce the law.
CIVIL LAW
Provides remedies for resolving disputes between parties.
Example – Patient suing a health professional for malpractice.
CRIMINAL LAW
Operates to punish breaches of the law within the wider community.
Example – Fraud in relation to a professional's billing practices.
Federal and state parliaments cannot make laws that contradict the Australian Constitution. Local government
creates by-laws.

Describe how duty of care will be exercised as a health professional.

As health professionals we owe a duty of care to:
• Our clients/students
• The families and carers of clients/students
• Members of the community who may be affected by the actions of our clients

DUTY OF CARE:
The expectation of how we will act, handle situations, and care for those of whom we have responsibility.
Health professionals have ethical and legal obligations to care for people who come for services or
treatments.

How do we know what is Reasonable?

Conduct that falls below the standards of behaviour established by law for the protection of others against
unreasonable risk of harm.
A person has acted negligently if he or she has departed from the conduct expected of a reasonably prudent
person acting under similar circumstances (p 195)
NEGLIGENCE:
- Negligence is a breach of duty of care
- Health professional behaves unreasonably
- Either by action or inaction
- The reasonableness of an action/inaction is assessed by considering how a hypothetical reasonable health
professional would have behaved in the same situation.
- Reasonableness will depend on all the circumstances – what is reasonable in one situation will not
necessarily be reasonable in another

There are 4 basic elements that need to be established before negligence can be proven:
1 – the professional owed duty of care to the client
2 – the appropriate standard of care has been breached
3 – because of the breach, damage has been caused to the client
4 – There are no defences which wholly or partially excuse the professional’s negligent behaviour.

Minimising risk of harm also called risk minimisation strategies’

Duty of care also involves minimising risk of harm
- The more serious the harm which could result from a program/intervention the less likely it will be that the
risk should be taken.
- Health professionals are expected to take steps to avoid reasonably foreseeable risks to injury as a
consequence of their treatments, interventions or programs.

Identify circumstances in which informed consent may be difficult and strategies to assist in
obtaining consent under these circumstances.
INFORMED CONSENT:
- The philosophy behind this is one which upholds human dignity and respect for one’s autonomy.
- Legally we cannot touch/ treat a client unless we first obtain their consent
- This principle applies regardless of the consequences of that decision for the individual, even if beneficial
(Kerridge, Lowe & Stewart,2013).
- Delivery of services without valid consent can be considered as assault.
- Obtaining consent from a client prior to and throughout treatment/intervention/program participation is
integral to good health professional practice. Consent can be revoked

CRITERIA FOR VALID CONSENT:

- Must be voluntary, without coercion, duress or misrepresentation
- Must be specific
- Must be informed
- The client must have capacity to consent – i.e. they are able to understand the implications of having the
treatment
- Can be verbal, written or implied, although written consent will assist in legal proceedings.

Information on risks, benefits and other choices HP are recommended to:

- Inform client on the severity of the consequences of the treatment and well as the consequences of not
having the treatment
- Inform clients on the advantages and disadvantages of other treatment options
- Give consideration to particular risks that the client may be concerned about.

Underage consent
- Until the late 20th century the common law assumed that a person under 18 years of age did not have the
capacity to make a decision to consent to medical treatment on his or her own behalf.
- Young people experience a number of barriers in accessing health services, and lack of confidentiality (or a
perceived lack of confidentiality) has been identified as a key problem.
- This position has changed for: - Informed consent
- Confidentiality from parents/ guardians
- Without the attendance of a parent or guardian the health professional must assess
- the maturity of the young person
- the capacity to understand consequences

The involvement of supportive parents may be a key element of successful treatment, but is not always
possible or desirable.
In 2003 the Health Insurance Commission changed its privacy policy to require young people aged 14 and over
to give consent before their parents could access their Medicare records.

Review the fifteen privacy principles relevant to health professionals.

PRIVACY IN HEALTH:
- Is the protection of individual’s health and associated personal information (including any information
disclosed and documented)
- Governed by the NSW Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002

WHERE MAY YOU ENCOUNTER HEALTH INFORMATION ON PLACEMENT?

● Observing the delivery of health services to clients
● Direct provision of services
● Liaison with team members
● Attending case conferences and team meetings
● Access to health information systems
● Reviewing patient notes or client records

HEALTH PRIVACY PRINCIPLE 1-15

Collection
1. Necessary – only if directly related to therapy 2. Relevant – accurate and up to date
3. Direct – collect from the person concerned
4. Open – inform the person about
what / why / who / how
Storage
5. Secure storage – locked or password protected
• Not kept longer than necessary
• Disposed of appropriately
• Protected from unauthorised access
Access and Accuracy
6. Transparent- organisations must provide individuals with information about the records that they are storing
about them and how to access them
7. Accessible - Person has the right to seek access to their information
8. Correct and can be amended when required
9. Accurate
Use
10. Limited to purpose for which it was collected or directly related
– Otherwise consent required Disclosure
11. Limited - only disclose information based on reason the information was collected
– Otherwise, need the individual’s consent prior to disclosure
– There are some special exceptions –court orders, mandatory notification
Identifiers and Anonymity
12. Person not identified
13. use of medical record numbers
Transferrals and Linkages
14. Controlled- transfer within policy guidelines
15. Consent required to linkages (NSW Health, 2005b)

What this means for you as a student:

● Understand the health privacy principles
● You may need to sign a confidentiality agreement
● Only access information relevant to your placement (that is, notes of patients you are working with)
● Never disclose information unless allowed by law
● Information which you bring back to uni (such as interview reports / journal content) must not contain
identifying information
● Show your supervisor any document that you are bringing back to university
● Comply with the policy of the organisation

How to ensure confidentiality:

● At work - use first name or no name, choose secure location to discuss
● At home – avoid discussions if possible, avoid using identifying information
● Over the phone - ensure consent for exchange of information
● Over email - ensure consent for exchange of information, use
formal and appropriate language
● For research and QA – obtain consent
● Storage of files - use policies of centre, don’t take them home, don’t leave open on desk
● Abide by the centre’s policies

Collaborate as an interprofessional health team in addressing the needs of a client

Examples of Breaches under the NDB Act, 2018 You are legally obliged to report
● If your business or website is hacked or suffers a crypto locker type of virus
● If you lose a laptop or phone where people can access confidential details of your client
● If you lose a paper file with confidential client details, or if files are stolen from insecure garbage bins,
or recycling bins
● If you dispose of an external backup drive or computer without correctly wiping it of confidential client
details
● You accidentally send the wrong letter or email to someone with another client’s details

The Act covers:

• All bodies currently under the Privacy Act (1988) must comply with the NDB. This includes:
• Healthprovidersandpeoplewho Handle Confidential medical information or records. This is a broad reaching
category that includes alternative health practitioners and healers, gyms, personal trainers, dietitians,
chiropractors.

My Health Records:
• My Health Record is an online summary of an individual's health information
•Healthcare Providers Authorised By Their Healthcare organisation can access My Health Record to view and
add patient health information.
• The My Health Record system has information such as health summaries, discharge summaries, prescription
and dispense records, pathology reports
and diagnostic imaging reports.

TUTORIAL: INTERPROFESSIONAL TEAMWORK AND ROLES:

Teams where there is a mix of different professional:
- Working interdependently
- Produce jointly defined goals (goals are client specific, not profession specific)
- Produce client-focused integrated care plans

Beneifts of interprofessional teams:

- More efficient mode of assessment and intervention delivery
- More efficient way of obtaining services because they are integrated, one package.
- Maintain the bigger picture
- Focussed on the client, not any one professional group

The HealthFusion Team Challenge (HFTC)

- competition designed to educate and prepare future health care professionals in collaborative client care
- outstanding students drawn from across the health sciences in various Australian universities
- The Western Sydney University Health Science team WON this national competition at University of
Technology, Queensland in 2013
- students learn by engaging in interdisciplinary groups to work through a case study created for the
competition
- In the end, each team presents their intervention plan for the client.The best intervention plan wins.
- Student feedback indicates that this is a great way to learn.

UQ HFTC 2012 MONTAGE 1:

Published on Jul 30, 2012
A video celebrating the teams' efforts for the 2012 UQ HFTC. Interprofessional teams of 4-6 students from a
wide range of health professions work together over several weeks to develop a management plan for a
patient with complex needs.They present their plans to an audience and then respond to a range of challenging
extension activities to determine the winner.