{"id":"university-medical-school-teaching-hospitals-act-1955","name":"University Medical School, Teaching Hospitals, Act 1955","slug":"university-medical-school-teaching-hospitals-act-1955","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"wa","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":null,"makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":110866,"registerId":"wa-university-medical-school-teaching-hospitals-act-1955-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-03","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"University Medical School, Teaching Hospitals, Act 1955","content":"![Crest]()Western Australia\n\nUniversity Medical School, Teaching Hospitals, Act 1955\n\nWestern Australia\n\nUniversity Medical School, Teaching Hospitals, Act 1955\n\nContents\n\n1. Short title 1\n\n2. Interpretation 1\n\n3. Declaration of teaching hospitals 2\n\n4. Power of managing body or Minister to enter into agreement with Senate 3\n\n7. Regulations 4\n\nNotes\n\nCompilation table 5\n\nDefined terms\n\n  \n\nWestern Australia\n\nUniversity Medical School, Teaching Hospitals, Act 1955\n\nAn Act to provide facilities in certain hospitals for the teaching of medical students of the University of Western Australia Medical School.\n\n##### 1. Short title\n\nThis Act may be cited as the *University Medical School, Teaching Hospitals, Act 1955*.\n\n##### 2. Interpretation\n\nIn this Act unless the context requires otherwise —\n\nhealth service provider has the meaning given in the *Health Services Act 2016* section 6;\n\nmanaging body, in relation to a hospital, means the health service provider that has control or management of the hospital;\n\n  medical student means a person who studies medicine;\n\n  medicine means all or any of the branches of medicine or surgery or both;\n\n  mental health hospital means a public hospital that the regulations provide is to be regarded as a mental health hospital for the purposes of this Act;\n\n  public hospital has the meaning given in the *Health Services Act 2016* section 6, and includes —\n\n(a) a hospital established under the *Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1911* Part XII; and\n\n(b) a mental health hospital;\n\n  Senate means the Senate constituted pursuant to the *University of Western Australia Act 1911*;\n\n  teaching hospital means a public hospital which —\n\n(a) has been declared under section 3(1); and\n\n(b) has not ceased by reason of a declaration made under section 3(2),\n\nto be a teaching hospital to which the provisions of this Act apply.\n\n[Section 2 amended: No. 21 of 1985 s. 2; No. 103 of 1994 s. 18; No. 69 of 1996 s. 92; No. 11 of 2016 s. 305(2)-(4); No. 19 of 2016 s. 198.]\n\n##### 3. Declaration of teaching hospitals\n\n(1) Where the Senate is of opinion that a public hospital is suitable for the teaching of medicine, the Senate may give written notification to that effect to the Minister who shall, as soon after receiving it as is practicable, present the notification to the Governor who may by proclamation declare the public hospital to be a teaching hospital to which the provisions of this Act apply.\n\n(2) If the Senate is of opinion that a public hospital that is declared to be a teaching hospital under subsection (1) should no longer be a teaching hospital to which the provisions of this Act apply, the Senate shall give written notification to that effect to the Minister who shall, as soon after receiving it as is practicable, present that notification to the Governor who may by proclamation declare that that public hospital ceases with effect from the date specified in that proclamation to be a teaching hospital to which the provisions of this Act apply.\n\n(3) The Minister may, if the name of a public hospital that is declared to be a teaching hospital under subsection (1) (in this subsection called the public hospital name) has been changed, recommend to the Governor that the name of the teaching hospital (in this subsection called the teaching hospital name) be changed to accord with the public hospital name as changed, and the Governor may by proclamation change the teaching hospital name in accordance with that recommendation with effect from the date specified in that proclamation, being a date not earlier than the date on which the change to the public hospital name to which that recommendation relates took place.\n\n(4) The identity and rights and obligations of a teaching hospital the name of which is changed under subsection (3) are not affected by that change and a reference to that teaching hospital as a teaching hospital in a written law or a document or instrument by its name as it was prior to that change shall be construed as a reference to that teaching hospital by its name as so changed.\n\n[Section 3 amended: No. 21 of 1985 s. 3.]\n\n##### 4. Power of managing body or Minister to enter into agreement with Senate\n\n(1) Subject to subsection (2) and section 5, a health service provider that has control or management of a teaching hospital may enter into an agreement with the Senate in relation to —\n\n(a) the provision in the teaching hospital of facilities for research and for the teaching of medicine, including the use of land under the control of the teaching hospital and the erection of buildings thereon; and\n\n(b) the admission of medical students to the practice, referred to in that agreement, of the teaching hospital; and\n\n(c) except in the case of a teaching hospital which is on the reserve within the meaning of the *Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre Act 1966*, the formation of an electoral committee for the teaching hospital charged with the responsibility of making recommendations to the managing body of the teaching hospital or the Minister, as the case requires, concerning the appointment of persons who are concerned with teaching duties to the consultant clinical staff of the teaching hospital.\n\n(2) The managing body of a teaching hospital shall not without the prior approval of the Minister enter into an agreement under subsection (1) in relation to the provision in the teaching hospital of facilities for research or for the teaching of medicine, being facilities which consist of —\n\n(a) the use of land under the control of the teaching hospital or the erection of buildings thereon; or\n\n(b) the acquisition of equipment of a type (however described or identified), or of more than a value, or of both —\n\n(i) determined by the Minister; and\n\n(ii) notified in writing to that managing body.\n\n[Section 4 inserted: No. 21 of 1985 s. 4; amended: No. 11 of 2016 s. 305(5); No. 1 of 2023 s. 99.]\n\n**[5, 6.** Deleted: No. 11 of 2016 s. 305(6).]\n\n##### 7. Regulations\n\nThe Governor may make such regulations as are required, or as appear to him to be necessary or convenient for effecting the operation and purposes of this Act.\n\n![]()\n\nNotes\n\nThis is a compilation of the *University Medical School, Teaching Hospitals, Act 1955* and includes amendments made by other written laws. For provisions that have come into operation, and for information about any reprints, see the compilation table.\n\nCompilation table\n\n| **Short title** | **Number and year** | **Assent** | **Commencement** |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| *University Medical School, Teaching Hospitals, Act 1955* | 31 of 1955 | 24 Nov 1955 | 24 Nov 1955 |\n| *Health Legislation Amendment Act 1984* Pt. XXIII | 28 of 1984 | 31 May 1984 | 1 Jul 1984 (see s. 2 and *Gazette* 15 Jun 1984 p. 1629) |\n| *University Medical School, Teaching Hospitals, Amendment Act 1985* | 21 of 1985 | 19 Apr 1985 | 17 May 1985 |\n| **Reprint of the *University Medical School, Teaching Hospitals, Act 1955* as at 2 Jan 1991** (includes amendments listed above) | | | |\n| *Hospitals Amendment Act 1994* s. 18 | 103 of 1994 | 11 Jan 1995 | 3 Feb 1995 (see s. 2 and *Gazette* 3 Feb 1995 p. 333) |\n| *Mental Health (Consequential Provisions) Act 1996* Pt. 21 | 69 of 1996 | 13 Nov 1996 | 13 Nov 1997 (see s. 2) |\n| **Reprint 2: The *University Medical School, Teaching Hospitals, Act 1955* as at 7 May 2004** (includes amendments listed above) | | | |\n| *Mental Health Legislation Amendment Act 2014* Pt. 4 Div. 4 Subdiv. 23 | 25 of 2014 | 3 Nov 2014 | 30 Nov 2015 (see s. 2(b) and *Gazette* 13 Nov 2015 p. 4632) |\n| *Health Services Act 2016* s. 305 | 11 of 2016 | 26 May 2016 | 1 Jul 2016 (see s. 2(b) and *Gazette* 24 Jun 2016 p. 2291) |\n| *Public Health (Consequential Provisions) Act 2016* Pt. 3 Div. 28 | 19 of 2016 | 25 Jul 2016 | 24 Jan 2017 (see s. 2(1)(c) and *Gazette* 10 Jan 2017 p. 165) |\n| *Health Services Amendment Act 2023* Pt. 6 | 1 of 2023 | 22 Feb 2023 | 1 Jul 2023 (see s. 2(b) and SL 2023/103 cl. 2) |\n\n\nDefined terms\n\n*[This is a list of terms defined and the provisions where they are defined. The list is not part of the law.]*\n\n**Defined term Provision(s)**\n\nhealth service provider 2\n\nmanaging body 2\n\nmedical student 2\n\nmedicine 2\n\nmental health hospital 2\n\npublic hospital 2\n\nSenate 2\n\nteaching hospital 2\n\nthe public hospital name 3(3)\n\nthe teaching hospital name 3(3)\n\n© State of Western Australia 2023.\n\nThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0). To view relevant information and for a link to a copy of the licence, visit www.legislation.wa.gov.au.\n\nAttribute work as: © State of Western Australia 2023.\n\nBy Authority: GEOFF O. LAWN, Government Printer\n","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[],"contradictions":[]},"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":3,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The legislation remains focused on its original purpose of facilitating medical student teaching in public hospitals. While it has been updated over time to reflect modern health service structures (replacing references to 'Hospital Board' with 'health service provider' and 'managing body'), these are technical modernisations rather than scope expansion. The core mechanism—declaring teaching hospitals and enabling agreements between hospitals and the University—remains unchanged from the 1955 intent."},"complexity_factors":["Short statute with only 7 sections (2 of which were deleted)","8 defined terms in the interpretation section, mostly straightforward (e.g., 'medical student means a person who studies medicine')","Some cross-referencing to other WA legislation (Health Services Act 2016, University of Western Australia Act 1911, Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre Act 1966)","Simple procedural mechanism: Senate recommends → Minister presents → Governor proclaims","Single substantive condition in section 4(2) requiring Ministerial approval for major capital expenditure or land use","No nested exceptions or complex conditional logic","Regulation-making power in section 7 is standard and broad but not heavily utilised in the visible text"],"plain_english_summary":"This Western Australian law sets up a system where public hospitals can become 'teaching hospitals' to train medical students from the University of Western Australia.\n\n**What it does:**\n- Allows the University Senate (the University's governing body) to recommend public hospitals as suitable for teaching medicine\n- The Governor (on the Minister's advice) can officially declare these hospitals as 'teaching hospitals' by proclamation (an official public announcement)\n- Teaching hospitals can enter agreements with the University to provide facilities for medical research and student training\n- These agreements can cover building new facilities, using hospital land, admitting students to clinical practice, and setting up committees to recommend appointments to teaching staff\n- The Minister must approve any agreements involving significant land use, building construction, or expensive equipment\n- The Governor can also remove a hospital's teaching hospital status if the University recommends it, or change a hospital's name if the public hospital name changes\n\n**Who it affects:**\n- University of Western Australia medical students (who get clinical training)\n- Public hospitals and their managing bodies (health service providers)\n- The University Senate\n- The Minister for Health\n- Patients at teaching hospitals (who receive care from supervised students)\n\n**Why it matters:**\nThis law ensures medical students get hands-on hospital experience before becoming doctors. It creates a formal partnership between the University and public hospitals, while keeping the Health Minister in the loop for major financial or land-use decisions."},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":3,"scope_assessment":{"changed":true,"description":"The Act's core purpose remains to authorise teaching hospitals, but scope and administrative controls have changed: definitions were aligned to the Health Services Act 2016 (s2 amendments); a Ministerial prior‑approval requirement for land, building or equipment arrangements was added/clarified (s4(2); s4 inserted 1985 and amended 2016, 2023); sections 5–6 were deleted. These amendments increase centralized oversight and require reading the Act with later health legislation (see compilation table and amendment notes)."},"complexity_factors":["Tripartite decision flow: Senate recommends, Minister transmits, Governor proclaims (s3) — multiple actors with separate formal roles increase coordination needs.","Ministerial prior‑approval power for specified facility arrangements (use of land, building works, equipment thresholds) concentrates discretionary control (s4(2)).","Agreements between health service providers (managing bodies) and the Senate may cover land use, construction and clinical appointments, creating negotiable commercial and governance terms (s4(1)).","Definitions cross‑refer to the Health Services Act 2016 for 'health service provider' and 'public hospital', requiring users to read multiple statutes (s2).","Regulation‑making power grants broad subsidiary rulemaking to the Governor, adding potential procedural detail outside the Act (s7).","Structural simplicity: few operative provisions and limited subject matter reduce statutory complexity despite the points above (overall brevity of Act).","Historical amendments and deletions (see compilation table; s4 inserted/amended; s5–6 deleted) introduce interpretive history for practitioners."],"plain_english_summary":"The Act lets the University of Western Australia Senate have public hospitals proclaimed as teaching hospitals and enables the hospital’s health service provider to enter agreements with the Senate for teaching and research facilities and the admission of medical students. The Minister must pre‑approve agreements that involve use of hospital land, erection of buildings or acquisition of equipment above notified thresholds, and the Governor makes the proclamations."},"summary":{"complexity_score":1,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"Unable to assess whether the scope of the legislation changed from its original intent, as no legislative text was available for analysis. Only a website error page was provided."},"complexity_factors":["No legislative content was retrievable — only a website error/redirect page was provided","Impossible to assess complexity without access to the actual text of the Act","Score of 1 reflects absence of content, not simplicity of the underlying law"],"plain_english_summary":"**No legislation content is available for analysis.**\n\nThe page that was supposed to contain the *University Medical School, Teaching Hospitals Act 1955* (WA) is no longer accessible on the Western Australian legislation website. The content retrieved is an error/redirect page — not the actual text of the law.\n\n**What this means for you:** It is not possible to provide a meaningful summary of what this Act does, who it affects, or how it might impact you based on the information provided. To find the actual legislation, you should:\n- Visit the [Western Australian Legislation website](https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au) and search directly for the Act by name\n- Contact the Parliamentary Counsel's Office Helpdesk as suggested on the error page\n- Check Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) as an alternative source"}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/university-medical-school-teaching-hospitals-act-1955","history":"/api/acts/university-medical-school-teaching-hospitals-act-1955/history","analysis":"/api/acts/university-medical-school-teaching-hospitals-act-1955/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/university-medical-school-teaching-hospitals-act-1955/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/university-medical-school-teaching-hospitals-act-1955/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/university-medical-school-teaching-hospitals-act-1955/documents"}}