Western Australian Consolidated Acts Western Australian Consolidated Acts (1) An act or omission
of a health professional is not a negligent act or omission if it is in
accordance with a practice that, at the time of the act or omission, is widely
accepted by the health professional’s peers as competent professional
practice.
(2)
Subsection (1) does not apply to an act or omission of a health
professional in relation to informing a person of a risk of injury or death
associated with —
(a) the
treatment proposed for a patient or a foetus being carried by a pregnant
patient; or
(b) a
procedure proposed to be conducted for the purpose of diagnosing a condition
of a patient or a foetus being carried by a pregnant patient.
(3)
Subsection (1) applies even if another practice that is widely accepted
by the health professional’s peers as competent professional practice
differs from or conflicts with the practice in accordance with which the
health professional acted or omitted to do something.
(4) Nothing in
subsection (1) prevents a health professional from being liable for
negligence if the practice in accordance with which the health professional
acted or omitted to do something is, in the circumstances of the particular
case, so unreasonable that no reasonable health professional in the health
professional’s position could have acted or omitted to do something in
accordance with that practice.
(5) A practice does
not have to be universally accepted as competent professional practice to be
considered widely accepted as competent professional practice.
(6) In determining
liability for damages for harm caused by the fault of a health professional,
the plaintiff always bears the onus of proving, on the balance of
probabilities, that the applicable standard of care (whether under this
section or any other law) was breached by the defendant.
[Section 5PB inserted by No. 43 of 2004
s. 5.]
[Heading inserted by No. 58 of 2003 s. 8.]