Almost 60 WA health practitioners are now trained to help people seeking voluntary assisted dying, but more are needed because of the higher-than-expected demand.
Seven months on since right-to-die laws came into effect in WA, 59 practitioners have completed the approved training, according to the latest figures from the WA Health Department.
Although nurse practitioners as well as medical practitioners are eligible to help people wanting to access VAD, Medical Forum understands that very few nurses are among those who have been trained.
And the number of patient requests has been significantly higher than earlier modelling suggested, prompting a push to get more doctors signed up.
More is being done to help educate GPs about what VAD means in practice. An online panel discussion, in conjunction with Rural Health West, is scheduled for March 16 and will focus on end of life options in country WA.
This follows a Royal Australian College of General Practitioners webinar held this week, at which GPs Dr Scott Blackwell and Dr Angela Cooney, and Alice Herring from the WA VAD State-wide Care Navigator Service, shared insights since VAD laws were introduced last July.
Dr Blackwell, who chairs the WA Voluntary Assisted Dying Board, provided an overview of the process and the legal obligations now required of all GPs when a patient requests access to VAD.
Last month, a forum to mark the first six months of VAD was held online and attended by more than 200 people. It was told that demand for VAD had been three times greater than expected.
The first person to legally die under the laws did so in July last year. In the following four months, 50 legal voluntary deaths took place – with the demand far exceeding earlier expectations of 50 to 70 deaths a year.
Eligible doctors and nurse practitioners wanting to take part in VAD need to complete the approved training.
A medical practitioner is able to act as a coordinating practitioner or consulting practitioner if they:
- hold specialist registration, have practised in the medical profession for at least one year as the holder of specialist registration and meet the requirements approved by the CEO; or
- hold general registration, have practised the medical profession for at least 10 years as the holder of general registration and meet the requirements approved by the CEO; or
- are an overseas-trained specialist who holds limited registration or provisional registration and meets the requirements approved by the CEO.