New South Wales was the last Australian state to bring Voluntary Assisted Dying into law on 28 November 2023. As a new and relatively unique piece of legislation, the 18 months between its preliminary introduction in May 2022 until its implementation gave a period of grace allowing Healthy North Coast to provide a significant body of education.
Healthy North Coast is very proud to have been part of this education journey and, in cooperation with LHDs from the Mid North Coast and Northern NSW, has provided four well-attended and well-received webinars.
Starting with two webinars prior to November last year, we explored both the clinical pathways for GPs and local pathways for patients and the community. This was followed by an update after six months, and then most recently a further update prior to the first anniversary of VAD legislation in NSW.
In this last webinar, we not only looked again at the requirements under the legislation, the continuing integration between palliative care and VAD and that all important GP perspective, but we were lucky enough to have Suzie Kuper, the retiring VAD Clinical Nurse Consultant for Northern NSW, provide us with some powerful stories on how VAD has positively impacted people.
The legislation, enacted with empathy and rigour, has become a powerful tool for the residents of NSW in their end-of-life decisions.
Many thanks to Dr Andy Williams, Medical Educator, in supporting and progressing VAD education within the Healthy North Coast footprint.
Participant feedback:
‘I now have upgraded information to ensure that best practise is maintained.’
‘I am very grateful for the ongoing education we receive on VAD provided by our PHN.’
The series of VAD webinars can be found on our webinar recordings page.
HealthPathways info:
- Voluntary Assisted Dying
- Username: manchealth
- Password: conn3ct3d
