Nurses and Midwives Tribunal

The Nurses and Midwives Tribunal is a former tribunal that was established in the Australian state of New South Wales which dealt with appeals and complaints of professional misconduct by nurses and midwives. The tribunal generally heard matters after the Nurses and Midwives Board has made a decision or a professional association had referred an issue to the tribunal. The tribunal heard matters in an informal manner in an attempt to do justice in the matter. The tribunal also conducted inquiries into complaints referred by the New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission.

On 1 January 2014 the tribunal's functions were assumed by the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

The tribunal replaced the earlier Nurses Tribunal previously established under the Nurses Act 1991 (NSW). The old tribunal was superseded following the reforms made to the registration of regulation of nurses in 2003 by the New South Wales government. This arose out of a report prepared by the Department of Health in which that department undertook a review of the Nurses Act then in operation. One of the major thrusts of the report was that the occupation of “midwife” needed to be recognised as a distinct occupation from that of “nurse”. Prior to 2003, a person wishing to practice as a midwife needed to be registered as a nurse and obtained a separate authorisation to act as a midwife. The changes since 2003 now allow a person to practice solely as either as a nurse or as a midwife, or as both, provided that they meet the requirements of registration.

The present tribunal is established under section 59 of the Nurses and Midwives Act 1991 (NSW). The Governor of New South Wales may appoint a person to be the chairperson of the tribunal. The governor may also appoint any number of persons to be deputy chairpersons of the tribunal. A person may only be appointed a chairperson or deputy chairman if they are a judge of the District Court of New South Wales or an Australian lawyer. The appointment is for up to seven years, but the person can be re-appointed again for up to another seven years. When a matter arises for determination, the Nurses and Midwives Board of New South Wales informs the chairperson of the tribunal of the matter. The chairperson may personally hear the matter or may instead delegate the hearing to a deputy chairperson. The Board then appoints three persons to sit on the tribunal with the chairperson. Two of the persons must either be a nurse or a midwife. Generally the board will select persons who are peers of the relevant person. The other person on the tribunal must be a lay person (i.e. a person who is not a nurse or midwife). This latter person is selected from a panel established by the Minister for Health. The four persons together constitute the tribunal.

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