Information for health care providers

Initial responsibilities of a health care provider

Before administering health care, a health care provider must make reasonable efforts to:

1. Ascertain if the adult has an Advance Personal Plan containing an Advance Consent Decision in relation to the health care needed.
2. Contact the appropriate health care decision maker for the adult with impaired decision-making capacity.
3. Determine the need for a health care decision maker to exercise their authority.
4. See the Initial responsibilities of a health care provider guideline PDF (1.1 MB).

Request a decision from the Public Guardian

In an emergency or for 'routine' PDF (1.5 MB) treatment that the person is agreeable to, the doctor or other health care provider is allowed to proceed with treatment without the consent of the health care decision maker.

The Public Guardian has authority to make health care decisions as a last resort where:

• the person has impaired decision-making capacity for the specific health care decision needed, and
• the person has not made an Advance Consent Decision in an Advance Personal Plan in relation to the health care needed, and
  • there are no identified health care decision makers willing and able to make the decision, or
  • the appointed Guardian or Advanced Personal Plan decision maker is not willing and able to make the decision and an application to NTCAT has not been made, or
  • the Public Guardian is ordered to be the health care decision maker by NTCAT.

Before requesting assistance from the Public Guardian, please review our Adult Health Care Consent PDF (3.9 MB) flowchart to ensure you have explored all other options and fulfilled your responsibilities as a health care provider. Specifically, there is the requirement to:

1. Determine the person's capacity to make the specific health care decision needed.
2. Check if the person has already made an Advance Consent Decision in an Advance Personal Plan (APP) regarding their current health care needs.
3. If there is no known Advance Consent Decision after reasonable efforts were made to determine this, contact the appropriate health care decision maker for the adult with impaired decision‑making capacity.
4. Determine whether the person is subject to a guardianship order in relation to health care.

Requests to the Public Guardian to make a health care decision in these instances can also be made by completing our Health Care Decision Request Form DOCX (114.4 KB) and submitting by email to pgt.health@nt.gov.au.

Refer to our guidelines Initial responsibilities of a health care provider PDF (1.1 MB) and Determining impaired decision making capacity for a health care decision PDF (1.9 MB) for more information.

Concerns about a health care decision maker

If a health care provider believes a health care decision maker is not fit or able to make the health care decision an application must be made to NTCAT to determine:

1. who should be the health care decision maker, or
2. make the health care decision.

If a health care decision maker is:

1. refusing to consent to 'significant' treatment for a patient with impaired decision-making capacity, and
2. does not know, and cannot infer, the wishes and views of the patient with impaired decision‑making capacity.

An interested party must apply to NTCAT (unless not reasonably practical to do so) to:

1. determine who should be the health care decision maker, or
2. make the health care decision.

The health care provider must provide written notice to the Public Guardian in relation to this matter by filling in the form Report to the Public Guardian regarding a health care decision maker DOCX (102.8 KB).

Refer to our guideline Determining the appropriate health care decision maker PDF (2.2 MB) for more information.