Western Australian Consolidated Acts

HEALTH ACT 1911 - SECT 336

336 .         Death of a woman as the result of pregnancy or childbirth to be reported to the Executive Director, Public Health

        (1)         Whenever any woman shall die as the result of pregnancy or of childbirth, or as the result of any complications arising from or following upon pregnancy or childbirth, the fact of such death shall be reported forthwith to the Executive Director, Public Health by the medical practitioner and any nurse who were at the time of the death attending such woman.

        (2)         Upon receipt of the report the Executive Director, Public Health shall by notice in writing signed by him direct the investigator appointed under the provisions of Part XIIIA to inquire into the circumstances of the death and by such notice require him to present to the Chairman of the Maternal Mortality Committee appointed under that Part, within a time to be specified in the notice, a full report of the investigation made by him.

        (3)         The report of the investigator presented to the Chairman shall be in the form of a connected medical case history relating to the deceased woman but shall not contain any particulars from which it may be possible to ascertain the identity of that woman.

        (4)         For the purposes of this section all information, records of interviews, reports, statements, memoranda or other particulars obtained by the investigator during an investigation made by him pursuant to the provisions of this section shall be confidential and shall not be communicated or divulged, either in whole or in part, by the investigator to any person other than the Chairman of the Maternal Mortality Committee, or by the Chairman or any other member of the Committee, except for the purposes and in accordance with the provisions of Part XIIIA.

        (5)         Information, records of interviews, reports, statements, memoranda and other particulars referred to in subsection (4) are not admissible in any court or before any tribunal, board or person in any action, cause or inquiry of any kind whatsoever.

        (5a)         A person employed by or acting with or under the instructions or under the authority of the Maternal Mortality Committee who exhibits, communicates or divulges in whole or in part any information, record of interview, report, statement, memorandum or other particular referred to in subsection (4) except for the purposes of, and in accordance with, Part XIIIA commits an offence.

        (6)         No person, corporate body, association, or institution shall be liable in any action for damages or other relief by reason of the furnishing to the investigator, or to the Maternal Mortality Committee, of any information, record, report, statement, memorandum or particulars referred to in subsection (4).

        (7)         Nothing in this section shall prejudice or otherwise affect any of the provisions of the Coroners Act 1996 , or of any other Act so far as the same relates to prosecutions for indictable and other offences and the obtaining and adducing of evidence relative thereto, but this section shall be read and construed as separate and distinct from the provisions of those Acts.

        [Section 336 inserted by No. 32 of 1937 s. 9; amended by No. 23 of 1960 s. 3; No. 28 of 1984 s. 45; No. 80 of 1987 s. 152; No. 2 of 1996 s. 61.]