6   Meaning of “reportable death”

(cf Coroners Act 1980, ss 12B (1) (a)–(g) and 13 (1) (a)–(c), (e)–(h) and (2))

(1)  For the purposes of this Act, a person’s death is a reportable death if the death occurs in any of the following circumstances:

(a)  the person died a violent or unnatural death,

(b)  the person died a sudden death the cause of which is unknown,

(c)  the person died under suspicious or unusual circumstances,

(d)  the person died in circumstances where the person had not been attended by a medical practitioner during the period of 6 months immediately before the person’s death,

(e)  the person died in circumstances where the person’s death was not the reasonably expected outcome of a health-related procedure carried out in relation to the person,

(f)  the person died while in or temporarily absent from a declared mental health facility within the meaning of the Mental Health Act 2007 and while the person was a resident at the facility for the purpose of receiving care, treatment or assistance.

(2)  A reference to a medical practitioner in subsection (1) includes a reference to a person authorised to practise as a medical practitioner under a law of another State or a Territory.

(3)  In this section:

health-related procedure means a medical, surgical, dental or other health-related procedure (including the administration of an anaesthetic, sedative or other drug), but does not include any procedure of a kind prescribed by the regulations as being an excluded procedure.