Woollard v The Medical Board of Australia Sitting as a Performance and Professional Standards Panel

[2016] WASCA 151

Western Australia Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Administrative Law
2. › Judicial review
3. › Certiorari
4. › Non-jurisdictional error of law on the face of the record
5. › Adequacy of reasons for decision
6. › Whether reasons of Performance and Professional Standards Panel were inadequate
7. › Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (WA), s 192
1. Administrative Law
2. › Reasons for decision
3. › Statutory obligation to give reasons
4. › Content of duty to provide adequate reasons
5. › Approach to reading reasons of non-legal decision-makers
6. › Whether reasons must be read fairly and as a whole
1. Health Law
2. › Professional regulation
3. › Health practitioners
4. › Discipline
5. › Performance and Professional Standards Panel
6. › Unsatisfactory professional performance
7. › Failure to maintain appropriate clinical records
8. › Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (WA), ss 5, 191, 192

Quick Take

The reasons of a Performance and Professional Standards Panel under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law must be read fairly and as a whole, in context, taking proper account of the decision-maker's lack of legal expertise, and without applying a fine-tooth appellate comb. It is appropriate to have regard not only to what is expressly stated but also to what can be reasonably inferred from the reasons. The availability of certiorari to quash a decision to caution (as opposed to more serious disciplinary action) remains an open question.