Quality Practice Series #8 (May 2024)

In this edition:

• Practitioner remuneration
• Midwest Board Meeting
• VAD Training Renewal
• Eligibility criteria: ordinarily resident in Western Australia
• VAD-IMS reminders

Message from the Voluntary Assisted Dying Board Chair

It has been nearly 3 years since voluntary assisted dying became an end of life choice in Western Australia and the interest in accessing voluntary assisted dying as an end of life choice continues to grow.

As always, the Board would like to express their gratitude for the time and effort of all practitioners, and we encourage you to reach out and share your experiences with us. You can do this through the submission of a personal reflection (that can be found here) or by emailing the VAD Board Secretariat Unit (VADBoard@health.wa.gov.au).

Dr Scott Blackwell
Chair - Voluntary Assisted Dying Board

Practitioner remuneration

The Board was recently pleased to receive advice from the End of Life Care Program (EOLCP) at the Department of Health that a fee-for-service remuneration model for voluntary assisted dying practitioners has been endorsed by the Department’s Health Executive Committee, which will see funding provided by the Department over the 2024-25 and 2025-26 financial years to support VAD practitioners providing VAD services, in non-salaried roles, to claim payment for clinical and administrative time.  Over the coming months the EOLCP team will provide further updates on progress, as the Department works towards implementing this model in the first half of the 2024-25 financial year (i.e. from 1 July 2024 onwards). 

The introduction of dedicated MBS items remains the preferred longer term/sustainable model for VAD practitioner remuneration across Australia. The Board and the Department will continue to work with interjurisdictional counterparts to influence change to the MBS and advocate for a national VAD practitioner remuneration model. 

Midwest Board meeting

The Board travelled to Geraldton in March 2024 to meet with local practitioners and gain a better understanding of how voluntary assisted dying is operating in the Midwest region. The regional engagement included a visit to facilities at Geraldton Regional Hospital, information sessions for practitioners and the community, and visits with VAD patients. Our regional engagement activities assist us in fulfilling our function under the Act to monitor the operation of voluntary assisted dying in WA, and to hear from local patients and practitioners about the successes and challenges of VAD in the region. The Board is planning regional meetings in Goldfields and South-West in second half of 2024 and looks forward to engaging with practitioners and community in these regions. 

VAD Training Renewal

Many practitioners who became active VAD practitioners in 2021 will now be approaching the time for renewal of the WA VAD Approved Training.

To maintain eligibility, practitioners will need to complete additional training prior to their expiry date. Practitioners who have undertaken a role designated by the Act can complete the WA VAD Approved Training renewal module. This condensed format module will take around 90 minutes to complete.

The Department of Health will contact practitioners 3 months prior to training expiry with instructions on how to access the renewal training. 

Eligibility criteria: ordinarily resident in Western Australia

As you may be aware, the State Administrative Tribunal has recently considered applications on the question of eligibility in relation to s16(b) of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2019 (the Act) which requires the person to be ordinarily resident in WA for at least 12 months at the time of making a First Request.

The End of Life Care Program has issued the following updated guidance to assist practitioners in light of the SAT decisions: 

At the time of making the First Request, the patient must have been ordinarily resident in WA for at least 12 months. This means that WA is their home, or usual place of residence, and has been for at least a year.

There are no fixed criteria for determining when a patient has been ‘ordinarily resident’ in WA. It does not mean that the patient must have lived continuously in WA for the entire 12 months. It is also not a requirement for a patient to have been ‘ordinarily resident’ in WA in the 12 months immediately prior to the First and Consulting Assessments. A patient can have periods outside of WA - for example, travelling on holiday, temporarily living elsewhere for work or personal commitments, or working a ‘fly-in fly-out job’ - and still be a resident of WA.

Where the Coordinating Practitioner or Consulting Practitioner has an ongoing relationship with the patient it may be relatively straightforward to determine if they have been ordinarily resident in WA. In other instances, it is recommended that the Coordinating Practitioner or Consulting Practitioner seeks evidence from the person to inform their decision.

Voluntary assisted dying practitioners should become familiar with the SAT decision, AB and CD [2024] WASAT 6 which provides further guidance on factors which may be relevant to take into consideration in determining a patient’s residency status.

VAD-IMS reminders

The Secretariat Unit continues to monitor and support practitioners with submitting the required notifications to the Board through VAD-IMS. Some common issues to look out for include:

• It is important to ensure forms are completed in full before submission, include a check by the submitter that all dates are correct and consistent, and no pages or questions have been missed. This is particularly important when submitting forms that have been completed outside VAD-IMS, including Written Declarations, Contact Person Appointments, and Practitioner Administration forms.
• The correct order for dates to be entered is DD/MM/YYYY
• The notes function in VAD-IMS can be useful to record extra commentary, however any material changes or notices such as submitting forms or correcting information should be emailed to the VAD Board inbox at VADBoard@health.wa.gov.au
• When submitting an Administering Practitioner Disposal Form with the reason of revocation, a revocation form must also be submitted to the Board to complete the process.