Bill 55 (Legislature 16, Session 1)

L16 S1 4506

Alberta — Bills

1968 Bill 55 I 1111. First Session. 16th Ik$!isJnture. 17 Elizabeth II THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ALBERTA BILL 55

An Act to amend The Alberta Evidence Act THE ATTORNEY GENERAL First Reading ............................................................. . Second Reading ....................................................... .. Third Reading ........................................................... . Printed by L. S. Wall, Queen's Printer, Edmonton

BILL 55 1968

An Act to amend The Alberta Evidence Act (Assented ,1968) HER MAJESTY, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Alberta, enacts as follows: 1. The Alberta Evidence Act is hereby amended. 2. The following

section is added after

section 10: lOa.

(1) A witness in an action, whether a party thereto or not, (

a) is not liable to be aRked and shaH not be permitted to answer any question as to any proceedinQ's before a committee to which this subsection applies, and (

b) is not Ii8 ble to be asked to produce, and shaH not be permitted to produce. any renort, statement, memorandum. recommendation, document or in formation of, or made by or made to. a comm.ittee to which this subsection appliegand thatw~asused in the course. of Or· arose out of any study, investi gation, r~esearch or progrRID car'ried on by a hos pital or any such~ ~cpmmittee for thepu:rn9s. e J~f medical education or improvement in medical or hospital care or practice. (2) Subsection (1) applies to the foHowing committees, namely: (

a) a tissue committee of a hospital; (

b) a research committee of a hospital; (

c) a medical staff committee established for the pur pose of studying or evaluating medical practice in a hospital; (

d) a medical research committee designated by an order of the Minister of Hea1th as an approved medical research committee for the purpose of this gection. (3) Subsection (1) does not apply to original medical and hospital re,cords pertaining to a pati~nt.

(4) Notwithstanding that a witness in an actIon (

a) is or has been a member of, or

Explanatory Notes I. This Bill amends

chapter 102 of the Revised Statutes. 2. The new

section lOa is intended to provide legal protection fa physicians and others who answer questions and give information to special committees in hospitals whose function is to investigate individual cases involving the physician's patients with a view to improving medical practice and care in the hospital or furthering medical education or research. Physicians are expected to co operate in the work of these committees but at present the evidence and reports in the ,committee's hands are not privileged iIi a court action, ·e.g., an: action against the physician or the hospital by a patient.

Section lOa provides that a witness is not permitted to give evidence pertaining to matters involving the committees. Evidence that is not admissible under subsection (1) may nevertheless, by subsection (4), be admitted if the witness came by the information from some other source than the committee. Subsection (5) states that a person who makes a disclosure or submission to any of these committees does not incur any legal liability by so doing. Similar legislation was passed in !Manitoba in 1965.

(

b) has participated in the activties of, or (

c) has made a report, statement, memorandum or recommendation to, or (

d) has provided information to, a committee to which subsection (1) applies, he is not, sub ject to subsection (1), excused from answering any ques tion or producing any document that he is otherwise bound to answer or produce.

(5) Neither nor (

a) the disclosure of any information or of any docu ment or anything therein, or the submission of any report, statement, memorandum or recommenda tion, to any committee to which subsection (1) applies, for the purpose of its being used in the course of any study, investigation, research or pro gram carried on by a hospital or any such com mittee for the purpose of medical education or im provement in medical or hospital care or practice, (

b) the disclosure of any information, or of any docu ment or anything therein, that arises out of such study, investigation, research or program, creates any liability on the part of the person making the disclosure or submission. 3. This Act comes into force on the day upon which it is assented to. 2

2 Title: 1968 (16th, 1st) Bill 55,

An Act to amend The Alberta Evidence Act

Document details

Collection	Alberta — Bills
Citation	L16 S1 4506
Type	bill
Volume / chapter	L16 S1 4506
Language	en
Format	json
Source	PROVINCIAL
Identifier	08abf3a30ed0f5cc6f407bd2ba465855f914ff5a

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