Planning your future health care

Respecting your wishes

We strive to provide excellent health care and to achieve this, close co-operation between patient, doctors, nursing staff, allied health and pastoral service professionals is needed.

In order to respect your wishes in the context of being a Catholic health care provider, we will offer only those treatments which accord with your personal treatment decisions, the Catholic Health Australia Code of Ethical Standards for Catholic Health and Aged Care Services in Australia and relevant legislation.

The Western Australian Government recognises that adults have the right to make - and have respected - certain decisions regarding their future medical treatment. To this end it has established a legal framework for people considering refusing, restricting or defining their future treatment preferences. This framework incorporates Advance Health Directives (AHDs).

An AHD is a document outlining your wishes about medical treatments in case an illness or accident leaves you unable to communicate. It is not compulsory for you to have such a document and many of our patients do not feel they need one. However, if you wish to know more about an AHD, please speak to your doctor or visit the WA Health Department website

If you have an AHD or an Enduring Power of Guardianship, please discuss it with your doctor and provide copies of the documentation to us on admission.

We have also developed a guide that may assist you.