{"id":"F2021L00463","name":"Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity – Alice Springs Public Hospital Morbidity and Mortality Program) Declaration 2021","slug":"health-insurance-quality-assurance-activity-alice-springs-public-hospital-morbidity-and-mortality-pr","collection":"legislative_instrument","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":null,"makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":101695,"registerId":"commonwealth-F2021L00463-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-03","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Name","content":"#### 1 Name\n\n This instrument is the Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity – Alice Springs Public Hospital Morbidity and Mortality Program) Declaration 2021.","sortOrder":0},{"sectionNumber":"2","sectionType":"section","heading":"Commencement","content":"#### 2 Commencement\n\n (1) Each provision of this instrument specified in column 1 of the table commences, or is taken to have commenced, in accordance with column 2 of the table. Any other statement in column 2 has effect according to its terms.\n\n```html\n

Commencement information

Column 1

Column 2

Column 3

Provisions

Commencement

Date/Details

1. The whole of this instrument

The day after this instrument is registered.

\n```\n\n> Note: This table relates only to the provisions of this instrument as originally made. It will not be amended to deal with any later amendments of this instrument.\n\n (2) Any information in column 3 of the table is not part of this instrument. Information may be inserted in this column, or information in it may be edited, in any published version of this instrument.","sortOrder":1},{"sectionNumber":"3","sectionType":"section","heading":"Authority","content":"#### 3 Authority\n\n This declaration is made under subsection 124X(1) of the Health Insurance Act 1973.","sortOrder":2},{"sectionNumber":"4","sectionType":"section","heading":"Repeal","content":"#### 4 Repeal\n\nThis instrument is repealed when it ceases to be in force in accordance with subsection 124X(4) of the Health Insurance Act 1973.","sortOrder":3},{"sectionNumber":"5","sectionType":"section","heading":"Schedule","content":"#### 5 Schedule\n\n The quality assurance activity described in the Schedule to this Declaration is, to the extent that the quality assurance activity relates to health services provided in Australia, declared to be a quality assurance activity to which Part VC of the Health Insurance Act 1973 applies.\n\n \n\nSchedule 1— Description of quality assurance activity\n\n1 Name of activity: \n\nAlice Springs Public Hospital Morbidity and Mortality Program\n\n2 Description of activity:\n\nThis declaration applies to the Alice Springs Public Hospital - Morbidity and Mortality Program (Activity). The Activity involves regular morbidity and mortality (M&M) meetings in which the care pathway resulting in a complication or death is discussed by the team(s) involved in the patient’s care. The meetings provide a forum for the sharing of clinical cases in an open non-punitive environment with the primary goals of learning and the improvement of patient safety.\n\nKey components of the Activity include:\n\n (a) introduction of a consistent and standardised reporting method for M&M meetings;\n (b) standardisation of M&M meetings to include three key features, namely the event, the complications and the outcomes and recommendations;\n\n(c) identification of clinical and systems factors that contribute to patient M&M;\n\n (d) hospital wide discussion with input from a variety of clinical departments and subspecialties\n (e) clear identification of a senior clinician and department who take responsibility for following up on recommendations recorded in the hospital recommendations register;\n (f) recording of recommendations in the Alice Springs Public Hospital recommendations register, which is overseen by the clinical governance committee; and\n (g) publication, in the Central Australian Health Service (CAHS) Annual Report, of information relating to:\n (i) the number of M&M meetings held in the previous 12 months;\n (ii) the number of cases discussed in M&M meetings;\n (iii) a summary of themes that contribute to morbidity and mortality;\n (iv) the number of recommendations made and the number of recommendations accepted by the CAHS; and\n (v) a description of issues raised during M&M meetings and any recommendations that arise from assessing safety and quality systems at the Alice Springs Hospital.\n\nAccess to identifying information is limited to the Quality Assurance coordinator, the Executive Director of Medical and Clinical Services and Northern Territory Department of Health Legal Services.","sortOrder":4}],"analysis":{"flash_summary_failed":{"failed":true,"reason":"A positive credit balance is required for all requests, including BYOK, so fallback providers remain available. Add credits at https://vercel.com/d?to=%2F%5Bteam%5D%2F%7E%2Fai%3Fmodal%3Dtop-up to continue.","source":"analysis-cron"},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This instrument remains tightly scoped to its original purpose. It declares a single, specific quality assurance activity at one hospital (Alice Springs Public Hospital) under the existing framework of Part VC of the Health Insurance Act 1973. There is no evidence of scope creep — the instrument does not expand beyond the statutory authority in section 124X, which expressly provides for declarations of individual quality assurance activities."},"complexity_factors":["Very short instrument (approximately 1.5 pages of substantive content)","Only 5 formal sections plus a brief Schedule","No defined terms section — all language is ordinary English","Single cross-reference to the enabling Act (subsection 124X(1) of the Health Insurance Act 1973)","No conditional logic, exceptions, or nested provisions","Straightforward declaratory structure: 'The activity described in the Schedule is declared to be...'","Schedule contains a simple descriptive list (7 bullet points) rather than operative provisions"],"plain_english_summary":"The declaration designates the Alice Springs Public Hospital Morbidity and Mortality program as a protected “quality assurance activity” under the Health Insurance Act 1973, shielding staff who participate from being compelled to give evidence or having those discussions used in court. It creates a legal safe space for clinicians to review deaths and complications to improve care.\n\nIt affects hospital clinicians, the Northern Territory Department of Health, and patients indirectly; it does not bar ordinary negligence claims—only protects the QA process itself."},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":3,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The instrument applies existing Part VC protections and requirements to the Alice Springs Public Hospital M&M Program as described in the Schedule; it limits application to health services provided in Australia and to the Activity’s defined components. It does not, on its face, expand Part VC beyond the Activity described (see Schedule; s 5)."},"complexity_factors":["Narrow, activity-specific scope limited to a single hospital program (Schedule).","Legal effect depends on cross-reference to Part VC of the Health Insurance Act 1973 (s 3).","Administrative and reporting duties: standardised reporting, recommendations register, annual public summary (Schedule, items 2(a)–(g)).","Data access and confidentiality constraint tied to specific roles (Schedule).","Temporal/repeal mechanism tied to subsection 124X(4) of the Health Insurance Act 1973 (s 4) — requires checking Act for duration and effect."],"plain_english_summary":"This instrument declares the Alice Springs Public Hospital Morbidity and Mortality Program to be a \"quality assurance activity\" under Part VC of the Health Insurance Act 1973, so the program’s meetings and records fall within that Part. It requires standardised M&M reporting, a recommendations register with named follow-up responsibility, annual aggregate reporting, and restricted access to identifying information, imposing administrative duties on hospital staff and concentrating follow-up decisions with senior clinicians and CAHS governance (Schedule)."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/health-insurance-quality-assurance-activity-alice-springs-public-hospital-morbidity-and-mortality-pr","history":"/api/acts/health-insurance-quality-assurance-activity-alice-springs-public-hospital-morbidity-and-mortality-pr/history","analysis":"/api/acts/health-insurance-quality-assurance-activity-alice-springs-public-hospital-morbidity-and-mortality-pr/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/health-insurance-quality-assurance-activity-alice-springs-public-hospital-morbidity-and-mortality-pr/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/health-insurance-quality-assurance-activity-alice-springs-public-hospital-morbidity-and-mortality-pr/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/health-insurance-quality-assurance-activity-alice-springs-public-hospital-morbidity-and-mortality-pr/documents"}}