Buddle Findlay has New Zealand’s leading health law team, with genuine specialists advising on all issues affecting the health sector
Buddle Findlay has New Zealand’s leading health law team. Our specialist expertise in health law - public and private, policy and commercial - reflects the vast array of issues that affect the health sector.
Our team includes lawyers who have spent many years working in the health sector as health professionals, managers and lawyers. Our thorough understanding of the legal issues, and the pressures and constraints facing our clients, means that our advice is relevant, practical, cost-effective and timely.
Clients
Our team advises and acts for health sector clients nationwide. Our broad range of clients include District Health Boards, private health service providers, registration authorities, Crown Entities, primary care providers, aged care providers, mental health service providers, non-governmental organisations, professional colleges and associations, and insurers of health providers.
Services
We provide specialist advice on all issues affecting the health sector, including:
- Clinical and corporate governance
- Compensation, clinical negligence, and claims for damages
- Complaints, inquiries, investigations and inquests
- Employment issues in the health sector
- Hospitals and health care facilities
- Medical law and treatment issues
- Mental health and intellectual disability
- Pharmaceuticals, medicines and medical devices
- Procurement and commercial contracting
- Primary care and public health
- Regulation of health professionals
Recent work
- Providing "virtual" in-house legal services for several District Health Boards while in-house counsel have taken extended leave
- Acting for health providers in negligence claims and claims brought under the New Zealand Bill of Rights, including acting for a District Health Board in a claim alleging a breach of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and seeking public law compensation following the death of a mental health patient in custody
- Representing health providers in high profile Coronial Inquests
- Advising and acting for public bodies (including District Health Boards and health regulatory authorities) in judicial review proceedings challenging their decision-making process and the legality of their decisions
- Co-ordinating and drafting responses to provisional findings of the Health and Disability Commissioner, including successfully overturning provisional breach findings against individual clinicians and health providers
- Advising on clinical practice investigations in the context of employment relationships and clinical privilege arrangements in private hospitals
- Reviewing and drafting policies on a range of issues, including conflicts of interest, protected disclosures, privacy and the disclosure of health information, informed consent, delegations of authority, and health waste management
- Advising and acting for health providers on information privacy issues, including successfully defending a District Health Board’s decision to withhold certain health information from a patient in proceedings before the Human Rights Review Tribunal
- Advising on changes in the health sector, including advising District Health Boards on regional alliances and the reconfiguration of primary care services in various regions
- Presenting seminars and training packages to District Health Boards and other health organisations on good decision-making, contract management, and legal compliance
- Advising health regulatory authorities on the management of concerns raising both conduct and competence issues, including referral to a professional conduct committee, referral to a competence review committee, and interim measures to protect the health and safety of the public
- Prosecuting disciplinary charges before the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal
Health law updates
As part of our commitment to the health sector, we provide regular email updates on relevant legal developments. If you wish to subscribe to this free service please complete the online subscribe to legal updates form.