As news comes to hand in my local newspaper that a child was given a vaccine against the mother’s express wishes, I can’t help but feel angry for her and her family and confused about the values of our “protecting health system and governance”. It is illegal in this nation to go against someone’s consent.
This is an absolute breech of the our governance and laws. And my next question is – what will be done to say sorry, to undo the vaccine and re-establish trust in the rest of us parents who would have made the same informed decision to obstain?
The law in Australia is as below:
This is a “cut and paste” from Queensland Health’s Guide to Informed Decision-making in Health care. It is based on our Nationals (and Commonwealth) ACT: Australia (Request and Consent) ACT 1985. – C2004C00705
|
Guide to Informed
Decision-making in
Healthcare
|
exert: 4.7
Childhood and school-based programs
(including oral health and immunisation programs)
There is a tension between providing healthcare to large numbers of patients and the need to ensure valid informed
consent has been provided.
Valid informed consent is required before examining or treating children and young persons in such programs. In particular, the principles and processes described in the following sections will apply:
•section 1.6 What process of obtaining informed decision-making needs to be followed?
•section 3 Informed decision-making and consent for children and young persons.
Where general consent is obtained to participate in a program involving multiple healthcare episodes over a periodof time, confirmation of ongoing consent is required on each occasion a patient attends for healthcare. (Refer also to section 1.11 What is the lifespan of a written consent?
)
It is usually sufficient to obtain verbal consent on the second and subsequent occasions where a signed consent to a program of healthcare already exists, but any discussions and confirmation of the consent are to be documented in the patient’s clinical records on each occasion. If there is any significant change in the patient’s condition or healthcare options, a fresh consent process is required.
If consent to all or part of the program is declined (for example, not wanting to receive one component of a multiple vaccination) or withdrawn, this decision and the reasons (if known) is documented in the patient’s clinical record.
(Refer to
section 1.9 Can a patient or decision-maker decline or withdraw consent to healthcare?
for more details. http://www.health.qld.gov.au/consent/documents/ic-guide.pdf
What are your thoughts on this contentious issue?
Please no sledging, insulting or abusive responses. Everyone is entitled to an opinion (at least in Australia so I thought).
