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COMPULSORY PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY INSURANCE
COVERAGE FOR OPTOMETRISTS
Effective from 8 August 2007
1. Section 25 of the Health Care Liability Act 2001 provides that an
optometrist is not entitled to practise in New South Wales without
professional indemnity insurance coverage, unless that person falls within
an exempt category, as detailed at clause 7 or 8 of the Health Care
Regulation 2007.
2. Section 25 of the Act also provides that practising as an
optometrist without being covered by professional indemnity insurance,
unless exempt from that requirement under the regulations is, for the
purposes of the Optometrists Act 2001, unsatisfactory professional
conduct.
3 The legislation further prescribes that the NSW Optometrists
Registration Board must not register a person as an optometrist unless it
is satisfied that the person will, whilst practising in New South Wales,
be covered by professional indemnity insurance or fall within an exempt
category. Further, the Board may cancel or suspend the person’s
registration if it is satisfied that the person is neither covered by
professional indemnity insurance nor exempt, whilst practising in New
South Wales.
4 Accordingly, the Optometrists Registration Board
requires all persons who apply for, or renew their registration, to
provide satisfactory evidence of their insurance coverage or a declaration
pertaining to their exempt status.
5. To assist practitioners with
these requirements, Section 25 of the Health Care Liability Act 2001 and
clauses 6 to 8 of the Health Care Liability Regulation 2007 are reproduced
below:
HEALTH CARE LIABILITY ACT 2001
Section 25:
Professional indemnity insurance for certain other health
practitioners
(1) This section applies to or in respect
of a person who is a health practitioner only if the regulations have
declared that this section applies to the class of health practitioner of
which the person is a member.
(2) A person is not entitled to
practise as a health practitioner unless the person is covered by
professional indemnity insurance.
(3) Accordingly, the appropriate
registration authority:
(a) must not register a person as a health
practitioner unless the authority is satisfied that the person will, while
practising as a health practitioner, be covered by professional indemnity
insurance, and
(b) may cancel or suspend the registration of a
person as a health practitioner if the authority is satisfied that the
person is not covered by professional indemnity insurance while the person
is practising as a health practitioner.
(4) Practising as a health
practitioner without being covered by professional indemnity insurance is,
for the purposes of the relevant health registration Act, unsatisfactory
professional conduct.
(5) This section does not apply in respect
of a health practitioner who is exempt under the regulations from the
requirement for professional indemnity insurance.
(6) This section
has effect despite the relevant health registration Act under which a
health practitioner is registered.
(7) In this section:
"appropriate registration authority", in relation to a health
practitioner, means the person or body who has the function, under the
relevant health registration Act, of determining any matter relating to
the registration of the health practitioner under the health registration
Act.
"relevant health registration Act", in relation to a health
practitioner, means the Act under which the health practitioner is
registered or is otherwise entitled to practise.
HEALTH
CARE LIABILITY REGULATION 2007 - REG 6
6 Classes of health
practitioner required to be covered by professional indemnity insurance
Section 25 of the Act applies to the following classes of
health practitioner:
| (a) chiropractors, |
(b) dental auxiliaries, |
| (c) dental prosthetists, |
(d) dentists, |
| (e) optometrists, |
(f) osteopaths, |
| (g) pharmacists, |
(h) physiotherapists, |
| (i) podiatrists, |
(j) psychologists. |
HEALTH CARE LIABILITY REGULATION 2007 - REG 7
7
Exemption from insurance requirement
(1) In accordance
with section 25 (5) of the Act, the following health practitioners are
exempt from the requirement for professional indemnity insurance:
(a) a person whose registration as a health practitioner is subject
to the condition that the person does not practise,
(b) a health
practitioner who practises primarily outside New South Wales and who is
covered by professional indemnity insurance of any kind while practising
in New South Wales,
(c) a health practitioner whose practice is
limited to the rendering of assistance, in the practitioner’s capacity
as a health practitioner, on a voluntary basis in emergency situations,
(d) a health practitioner who practises in the course of
being:
(i) employed by another person, or
(ii) engaged by another
person under some contractual arrangement,
(e) a health practitioner whose practice does not include the
provision of health care or of an opinion given in the practitioner’s
capacity as a health practitioner in respect of the physical or mental
health of any person,
(f) a health practitioner who, while
practising, is covered by an indemnity arrangement established or
entered into by the State or the Commonwealth to cover civil liability,
(g) a health practitioner who, while practising in accordance
with a function conferred or imposed by or under any State or
Commonwealth Act or regulation, does not, under that Act or regulation,
incur any personal liability.
(2) An exemption under subclause (1) (b)-(g) applies to a health
practitioner only to the extent to which the health practitioner practises
in the circumstances described in the exemption concerned.
(3)
Without limiting subclause (2), the exemption under subclause (1) (d)
applies only in relation to a health practitioner:
(a) to the extent that the health practitioner is practising as an
employee of, or under contract to, the other person, and
(b) to
the extent that the health practitioner is indemnified, under an
insurance policy issued to the other person, for civil liability arising
out of the provision of, or failure to provide, health care by the
health practitioner, and
(c) if the other person is not the
health practitioner’s practice company.
HEALTH CARE LIABILITY REGULATION 2007 - REG 8
8
Exemption for limited period after cessation of insurer’s business
(1) If a health practitioner ceases to be covered by
professional indemnity insurance as a consequence of the cessation of
business of the insurer who provided the insurance, the health
practitioner is, in accordance with section 25 (5) of the Act, exempt from
the requirement for professional indemnity insurance but only for a period
of no more than 3 months (or such longer period as the Minister may
specify by order published in the Gazette) commencing on the date on which
the health practitioner ceased to be so covered.
(2) The reference
in subclause (1) to the cessation of business of an insurer includes a
reference to the appointment of a liquidator, administrator or controller
(within the meaning of the Corporations Act 2001 of the Commonwealth) in
respect of the insurer’s business.
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