Queensland Consolidated Acts

PUBLIC HEALTH ACT 2005 - SECT 208

208 Chief executive (child safety) may require information from designated medical officer

(1) This section applies if the chief executive (child safety) considers information is required about a child held under a care and treatment order.

(2) The chief executive (child safety) may ask a designated medical officer, orally or in writing, for stated information about the child, within a reasonable stated time.

(3) The designated medical officer must comply with the request to the extent the designated medical officer is able to do so, unless the designated medical officer has a reasonable excuse.

Penalty—

Maximum penalty—50 penalty units.

(4) The designated medical officer is not liable to be prosecuted for an offence against subsection (3) unless the chief executive (child safety), when making the request, warns the designated medical officer it is an offence to fail to comply with the request to the extent the designated medical officer is able to do so, unless the designated medical officer has a reasonable excuse.

(5) A person who gives information requested under this section who would otherwise be required to maintain confidentiality about the information given under an Act, oath, rule of law or practice—

(a) does not contravene the Act , oath, rule of law or practice by giving the information; and

(b) is not liable to disciplinary action for giving the information.

Note—

See for example the Hospital and Health Boards Act 2011 , section 142 .

(6) Also, merely because the person gives the information, the person can not be held to have—

(a) breached any code of professional etiquette or ethics; or

(b) departed from accepted standards of professional conduct.