Western Australian Current Acts

PUBLIC HEALTH ACT 2016 - SECT 111

111 .         Test results to be reported

        (1)         If a sample that is the subject of a test order is tested for a notifiable infectious disease, the following persons must ensure that the results of the test are reported to the Chief Health Officer as soon as is practicable —

            (a)         if the sample is tested at a pathology laboratory, the responsible pathologist (as defined in section 93);

            (b)         if paragraph (a) does not apply, the pathologist or other person who tested the sample;

            (c)         if the results of the test are reported to the medical practitioner, nurse, midwife or qualified person who took the sample, that medical practitioner, nurse, midwife or qualified person.

        (2)         As soon as is practicable after receiving the test results, the Chief Health Officer must give notice of the test results to the following persons —

            (a)         the person from whom the sample tested was obtained or taken, unless that person is a protected person or a deceased person;

            (b)         if the person from whom the sample tested was obtained or taken is a protected person, the responsible person named in the test order;

            (c)         if the person from whom the sample tested was taken is a deceased person —

                  (i)         the person named in the test order as the person having lawful custody of the deceased person’s body; or

                  (ii)         if the deceased person died after the sample was taken, the senior next of kin of the deceased;

            (d)         any person to whom a notifiable infectious disease could have been transmitted, as referred to in section 100(1)(a) or (2)(a), but only if the information is necessary —

                  (i)         for the clinical or public health management of that person; or

                  (ii)         to inform that person that the test results were negative;

            (e)         any medical practitioner, nurse, midwife or other person who requires or might require the information for the purposes of —

                  (i)         the clinical or public health management of the person from whom the sample tested was obtained or taken or a person to whom paragraph (d) applies; or

                  (ii)         if the person from whom the sample tested was obtained or taken is a deceased person, the public health management of the deceased person.