South Australian Current Acts South Australian Current Acts (1) In this Act,
unless the contrary intention appears—
"administration" of medical treatment includes the prescription or supply of
drugs;
"advance care directive" means an advance care directive under the
Advance Care Directives Act 2013 that is in force;
"child" means a person under 16 years of age;
"decision", of the Tribunal, has the same meaning as in the
South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 ;
"dentist" means a person registered under the Health Practitioner Regulation
National Law —
(a) to
practise in the dental profession as a dentist (other than as a student); and
(b) in
the dentists division of that profession;
"guardian" means a person acting or appointed under any Act or law as the
guardian of another;
"impaired decision-making capacity", in respect of a particular
decision—see subsection (2);
"internal review" means a review under section 70 of the
South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 ;
"life sustaining measures" means medical treatment that supplants or maintains
the operation of vital bodily functions that are temporarily or permanently
incapable of independent operation, and includes assisted ventilation,
artificial nutrition and hydration and cardiopulmonary resuscitation;
"medical practitioner" means a person registered under the Health Practitioner
Regulation National Law to practise in the medical profession (other than as a
student) and includes a dentist;
"medical treatment" means the provision by a medical practitioner of physical,
surgical or psychological therapy to a person (including the provision of such
therapy for the purposes of preventing disease, restoring or replacing bodily
function in the face of disease or injury or improving comfort and quality of
life) and includes the prescription or supply of drugs;
Note—
See also section 14, which extends this definition for the purposes of
Part 2A to include other forms of health care.
"palliative care" means measures directed at maintaining or improving the
comfort of a patient who is, or would otherwise be, in pain or distress;
"parent", of a child, includes—
(a) a
step-parent; and
(b) an
adult who acts in loco parentis in relation to the child;
"persistent vegetative state" includes post-coma unresponsiveness and a
minimally responsive state;
"Public Advocate" means the person holding or acting in the office of
Public Advocate under the Guardianship and Administration Act 1993 ;
"representative", of a patient, means a person authorised under this or any
other Act or law to make decisions about the administration of
medical treatment of the relevant kind to the patient;
"substitute decision-maker" has the same meaning as in the
Advance Care Directives Act 2013 ;
"terminal illness" means an illness or condition that is likely to result in
death;
"terminal phase" of a terminal illness means the phase of the illness reached
when there is no real prospect of recovery or remission of symptoms (on either
a permanent or temporary basis);
"Tribunal" means the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal
established under the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal
Act 2013 .
(2) For the purposes
of this Act, a person will be taken to have "impaired decision-making capacity
in respect of a particular decision if—
(a) the
person is not capable of—
(i)
understanding any information that may be relevant to the
decision (including information relating to the consequences of making a
particular decision); or
(ii)
retaining such information; or
(iii)
using such information in the course of making the
decision; or
(iv)
communicating his or her decision in any manner; or
(b) the
person is, by reason of being comatose or otherwise unconscious, unable to
make a particular decision about his or her medical treatment.
(3) For the purposes
of this Act—
(a) a
person will not be taken to be incapable of understanding information merely
because the person is not able to understand matters of a technical or trivial
nature;
(b) a
person will not be taken to be incapable of retaining information merely
because the person can only retain the information for a limited time;
(c) a
person may fluctuate between having impaired decision-making capacity and full
decision-making capacity;
(d) a
person's decision-making capacity will not be taken to be impaired merely
because a decision made by the person results, or may result, in an adverse
outcome for the person.
(4) For the purposes
of this Act, a medical practitioner is entitled to presume that a person who
purports to be in a close and continuing relationship with another person is
in such a relationship unless the medical practitioner knew, or ought
reasonably to have known, that the 2 persons were not in such a
relationship.
(5) For the purposes
of this Act, a medical practitioner is entitled to presume that a person who
purports to have a particular relationship to another person (whether the
relationship is based on affinity or consanguinity or otherwise) does have
such a relationship unless the medical practitioner knew, or ought reasonably
to have known, that the person did not have such a relationship to the other
person.