45Disclosure of pecuniary interests to patients

45 Disclosure of pecuniary interests to patients

(1)  If a practitioner has a pecuniary interest in an establishment, the practitioner must not –

(a) advise a person to be admitted to the establishment; or

(b) arrange the admission of a person to the establishment; or

(c) provide medical, surgical or other treatment to, or arrange the provision of any such treatment to, any patient in the establishment –

unless, before so doing, the practitioner has notified the person or patient, in the prescribed manner, that the practitioner has a pecuniary interest in the establishment.

Penalty:  Fine not exceeding 20 penalty units.

(2)  The regulations may provide, for the purposes of subsection (1) , that the manner of notification is to be any one or more of the following:

(a) a statement made by the practitioner;

(b) a written notification given by the practitioner and, if so required by the regulations, signed by the person to whom it is given;

(c) a notice displayed prominently at the establishment;

(d) a notice displayed prominently in any surgery or other premises of the practitioner.

(3)  A person is not guilty of an offence under subsection (1) if the person proves that he or she –

(a) contravened that subsection in the course of providing emergency medical, surgical or other treatment to a person; or

(b) was not, at the time the contravention occurred, aware that he or she had a pecuniary interest in the establishment concerned.

(4)  For the purposes of this section, a practitioner has a pecuniary interest in an establishment only if the practitioner has an interest in the establishment of a kind which is prescribed by the regulations as a pecuniary interest in the establishment.

(5)  The regulations may provide that an interest of a relative or associate of a practitioner is taken to be a pecuniary interest of the practitioner.