With over six months passing since the Medical Treatment Planning and Decisions Act 2016 (Vic) (Act) began, the law firm says it is seeing providers struggle with the interpretation of ACD documents completed before the Act started on 12 March 2018.
In many cases, providers previously allowed residents’ family members without decision making capacity to complete forms saying the care recipient wasn’t to be resuscitated.
“The status of such documents needs to be carefully reviewed, because, under the new Act, the person or persons who completed those documents might not be the care recipient’s medical treatment decision maker.”
“If this is the case, the approved provider may not be able to rely on the document because an ACD made prior to 12 March 2018 does not have the same effect as one made under the new Act,” they say.
Russell Kennedy says approved providers should ensure family members who make decisions on behalf of a resident without decision-making capacity have the legal authority to do so – good advice.
It’s worth reading the full article HERE.
