Marine Safety Act 1998

Any medical practitioner by whom an accident hospital patient is attended at a hospital is under a duty to take a sample of the patient’s blood for analysis as soon as practicable.

The medical practitioner is under a duty to take the sample whether or not the accident hospital patient consents to the taking of the sample.

If there is no medical practitioner present to attend the accident hospital patient at the hospital, the blood sample is to be taken by a registered nurse who is attending the patient and who is accredited by a hospital as competent to perform the sampling procedures.

This clause does not require the taking of a sample of blood from an accident hospital patient unless, at the time of the accident concerned, the accident hospital patient was operating a vessel or in the water at the time of the accident.

A medical practitioner or registered nurse is not required by this clause to take a sample of an accident hospital patient’s blood if—

a sample of the accident hospital patient’s blood has already been taken in accordance with this clause by another medical practitioner or nurse, or

the medical practitioner or nurse has been informed by a police officer (or has reasonable grounds to believe) that the sample is required to be taken for the purposes of clause 13.

A blood sample taken under this clause may be used for the purpose of conducting an analysis to determine the concentration of alcohol in the blood.