HEALTH PROFESSIONS REGISTRATION ACT 2005 (NO 97 OF 2005) - SECT 3 Definitions
HEALTH PROFESSIONS REGISTRATION ACT 2005 (NO 97 OF 2005) - SECT 3
Definitions(1) In this Act—
"alcoholic" has the same meaning as in the Alcoholics and Drug-dependent Persons Act 1968 ;
"authorised person" means the registrar of a responsible board or a person authorised by a responsible board or the Secretary under section 143 to carry out functions and exercise powers under Part 9;
"condition" includes limitation or restriction;
"division" in relation to a register, means a division of a register established or continued by section 172;
"drug-dependent person" has the same meaning as in the Alcoholics and Drug-dependent Persons Act 1968 ;
"endorsement" means an endorsement of a health practitioner's registration under Division 2 of Part 2;
"fund" means a fund established by or continued in operation under this Act that is administered by a responsible board;
"health assessment" includes a medical examination by a medical practitioner registered under this Act;
"health panel" means a health panel established by a responsible board under Schedule 2;
"health practitioner" means a practitioner in one of the health professions regulated by a responsible board but does not include a student;
"Health Services Commissioner" means the Health Services Commissioner within the meaning of the Health Services (Conciliation and Review) Act 1987 ;
"investigations committee" means an investigations committee established by a responsible board under Schedule 2;
"investigation review panel" means an investigation review panel established by a responsible board under Schedule 2;
"investigator" means a person appointed by a responsible board to conduct an investigation under Division 2 of Part 3;
"lawyer" means a person who—
(a) is admitted to the legal profession under the Legal Profession Act 2004 or a corresponding law within the meaning of that Act; and
(b) holds a practising certificate granted under that Act or a practising certificate granted under a corresponding law within the meaning of that Act;
"member" means a member of a responsible board;
"non-practising health practitioner" means a health practitioner who is registered under section 11;
"notifier" means a person who has made a notification under section 42 ;
"panel hearing" means a hearing conducted by a health panel or a professional standards panel under Division 6 or 7 of Part 3;
"pharmacy" means premises in or from which a registered pharmacist supplies, compounds or dispenses medicines to the public and includes the portion of the premises where the pharmacist sells or offers to sell goods of any kind, but does not include a pharmacy department or pharmacy depot;
"pharmacy business" means a business carried on at a pharmacy and includes the business of providing pharmacy services and that part of the business where goods of any kind are sold or offered to be sold but does not include a pharmacy department or pharmacy depot;
"pharmacy services" includes—
(a) the supply, compounding or dispensing of medicines; and
(b) advice and counselling on the effective and safe use of medicines;
"pharmacy department" means the portion of the premises of a registered funded agency, private hospital or privately-operated hospital within the meaning of the Health Services Act 1988 set aside for supplying, compounding or dispensing medicines on order or prescription to patients and staff of the agency or hospital;
"pharmacy depot" means premises at which—
(a) written prescriptions for the supplying, compounding or dispensing of medicines may be left for a pharmacist;
(b) medicines supplied, compounded or dispensed by a registered pharmacist may be left for collection by or on behalf of the person to whom they are addressed;
"practice" , in relation to the health profession of Chinese medicine, includes the practice of dispensing Chinese herbs;
"practise" , in relation to a pharmacist, includes provide pharmacy services;
"professional indemnity insurance" includes insurance against civil liability in connection with the provision of regulated health services by a registered health practitioner and an agreement or arrangement for discretionary indemnity in respect of that liability;
"professional misconduct" includes—
(a) unprofessional conduct of a health practitioner, where the conduct involves a substantial or consistent failure to reach or maintain a reasonable standard of competence and diligence; and
(b) conduct that violates or falls short of, to a substantial degree, the standard of professional conduct observed by members of the profession of good repute or competency; and
(c) conduct of a health practitioner, whether occurring in connection with the practice of the health practitioner's health profession or occurring otherwise than in connection with the practice of a health profession, that would, if established, justify a finding that the practitioner is not of good character or is otherwise not a fit and proper person to engage in the practice of that health profession;
"professional performance" means the knowledge, skill or care possessed and applied by a registered health practitioner in the provision of regulated health services;
"professional standards panel" means a professional standards panel established by a responsible board under Schedule 2;
"proprietary interest" means a legal or beneficial interest and includes a proprietary interest as a sole proprietor, as a partner, as a director, member or shareholder of a company and as the trustee or beneficiary of a trust;
"register" means a register of health practitioners under section 30 kept by the responsible board which regulates those health practitioners;
"registered health practitioner" means a person registered under Part 2, whether or not the registration of that person is general, specific, provisional, interim or non-practising but does not include a registered student;
"registered medical practitioner" means a medical practitioner registered under Part 2 of this Act by the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria but does not include a registered student;
"registered pharmacist" means a pharmacist registered under Part 2 of this Act by the Pharmacy Board of Victoria but does not include a registered student;
"registered student" means a student registered under section 8 ;
"registrar" means the person employed by a responsible board under section 132 to be responsible for the register kept by that board;
"regulated health profession" means a health profession that is regulated by a responsible board under this Act;
"regulated health service" means a health service usually provided in a regulated health profession;
"responsible board" , in relation to a health practitioner regulated under this Act, means the responsible board listed in Schedule 1, established or continued in operation by this Act that registers and regulates the health practitioner;
"Secretary" means—
(a) in relation to any act to which section 6(3) of the Health Act 1958 applies, the body corporate established under section 6 of that Act; and
(b) in any other case, the Department Head, within the meaning of the Public Administration Act 2004 , to the Department of Human Services;
"supervised practice" includes internship;
"Tribunal hearing" means a proceeding conducted by VCAT under Division 1 or 2 of Part 4;
"unprofessional conduct" includes—
(a) conduct of a health practitioner occurring in connection with the practice of the practitioner's health profession that is of a lesser standard than a member of the public or the health practitioner's peers are entitled to expect of a reasonably competent health practitioner of that kind;
(b) professional performance which is of a lesser standard than that which the registered health practitioner's peers might reasonably expect of a registered health practitioner;
(c) infamous conduct in a professional respect;
(d) providing a person with health services of a kind that are excessive, unnecessary or not reasonably required for that person's well-being;
(e) influencing or attempting to influence the provision of health services in such a way that client care may be compromised;
(f) a contravention of section 94 or the guidelines issued under section 95 ;
(g) the failure to act as a health practitioner when required under an Act or regulations to do so;
(h) a finding of guilt of—
(i) an offence where the health practitioner's suitability to continue to practise is likely to be affected because of the finding of guilt or where it is not in the public interest to allow the health practitioner to continue to practise because of the finding of guilt; or
(ii) an offence under this Act or the regulations; or
(iii) an offence as a health practitioner under any other Act or regulations;
(i) the contravention of, or failure to comply with a condition imposed on the registration of the health practitioner by or under this Act;
(j) in the case of a registered pharmacist, if the pharmacist owns or has a proprietary interest in a pharmacy business approved under Part 6, failure to comply with a condition of approval of that pharmacy business;
(k) the breach of an agreement made under this Act between a health practitioner and the responsible board that registered that practitioner.
(2) In this Act—
(a) a reference to general, specific, provisional or interim registration is to be taken to include a reference to that registration in a particular division of the register kept by the responsible board;
(b) a reference to a registered health practitioner in relation to any matter or proceedings referred to in Part 3 or 4, is to be taken to include a reference to a person who has ceased to be or is no longer a registered health practitioner or whose registration has been cancelled or is suspended.
(3) If under the Public Administration Act 2004 the name of the Department of Human Services is changed, the reference in the definition of "Secretary" in sub-section (1) to that Department must, from the date when the name is changed, be treated as a reference to the Department by its new name.
(4) For the purposes of this Act, a person is to be treated as carrying on a business (including a pharmacy business) or pharmacy department or pharmacy depot if the person owns, manages, controls, conducts or operates the business or the pharmacy department or pharmacy depot.
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PART 2—REGISTRATION