New South Wales Consolidated Acts

VETERINARY PRACTICE ACT 2003 - SECT 45A

45A Board may require practitioner to undergo examination

(1) For the purpose of investigating or determining any complaint, the Board may, by notice given to the veterinary practitioner against whom a complaint has been made, require the practitioner to undergo an examination by a specified health practitioner at a specified time and place.

(2) A veterinary practitioner must not be required to undergo an examination unless it is reasonable to require the examination.

(3) The time and place for the examination must be reasonable.

(4) The examination is to be at the expense of the Board.

(5) A health practitioner must, as soon as possible after carrying out an examination of a veterinary practitioner under this section, give a report about the examination to the Board.

(6) The Board must give a copy of such a report to the veterinary practitioner concerned as soon as possible after the Board receives the report from the health practitioner.

(7) A failure by a veterinary practitioner, without reasonable cause, to comply with a requirement to undergo an examination is, for the purposes of this Act, evidence that the practitioner does not have sufficient physical or mental capacity to practise veterinary science.

(8) If a health practitioner provides a report to the Board under this section, and does so in good faith:

(a) the provision of the report does not constitute a breach of professional etiquette or ethics or a departure from accepted standards of professional conduct, and

(b) no liability for defamation is incurred because of the provision of the report, and

(c) the provision of the report does not constitute a ground for any other civil proceedings.

(9) The protections given to a health practitioner by subsection (8) extend to:

(a) any person who, in good faith, provided the health practitioner with any information on the basis of which the report was prepared, and

(b) any person who, in good faith, was otherwise concerned in the preparation or the provision to the Board of the report.