An international health law expert says that Australia urgently needs to reform its medical negligence system. Associate Professor Jennifer Schulz (formerly Moore), Faculty of Law and Justice, UNSW, says that Australia’s reliance on litigation as the sole route to compensation for injured patients is expensive, not fit for purpose and rarely meets patients’ needs.

Please share our petition for no-fault compensation for Australian injured patients.

Associate Professor Jennifer Schulz’s call for reform has been featured in articles recently published by the UK journal Future Healthcare and the University of New South Wales.

A New Zealander, Professor Schulz has extensive experience of alternative dispute resolution models for dealing with patient harm, both New Zealand’s no-fault compensation scheme, established in 1974, and the communication and resolution programs (CRPs) developed by Harvard and Stanford universities. She works with patients and their families, health providers and legal representatives,
and has developed a survey that can be used to assess the satisfaction of patients with processes for resolving incidents of patient harm.

Her call for reform comes as the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, declares health reform a top priority and the new NSW Labor government begins drafting terms of reference for a special commission of inquiry into the state’s health services.

To achieve such reform, we need a broad base of community support as well as the support of individuals with relevant expertise, such as Professor Schulz. We have now passed 15,000 signatures to our petition. Please continue to share the petition and encourage others to sign it.

Gratefully,

Sarah and Vickie