A University of Tasmania review of Tasmania's voluntary assisted dying legislation has urged consideration over support services for patients considering the process should it be enacted by law.
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An expert panel was last year appointed to study the bill which was passed by the Legislative Council last year and will be debated in the lower house next month.
The panel was not tasked to make recommendations on whether the bill should be amended or passed, rather, to analyse it by comparison to similar laws in other jurisdictions and provide some considerations.
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It found the bill was one of the most stringent when compared to Australian and international jurisdictions.
The panel found the bill was more complex and comprehensive compared to Australian jurisdictions, running at 170 pages long compared to the Victoria act (123 pages) and the Western Australian act (116 pages).
The analysis found there were a number of differences between the Tasmanian bill and other jurisdictions.
A Tasmanian patient is able to choose whether to administer a voluntary assisted dying drug themselves or have it administered for them.
Both medical practitioners and nurses in Tasmania would be eligible to administer the drug.
Three separate requests must be made to access the voluntary assisted dying process and four separate eligibility assessments need to be conducted.
Health practitioners are able to discuss voluntary assisted dying with a person, even if that person has not requested it, so long as the discussion is held in the context of a wider discussion about treatment options and likely outcomes.
The panel suggested consideration be given to a fifth assessment of a person's decision-making capacity for the voluntary assisted dying process by a registered nurse who performed an administering health professional role.
It said there was no requirement for hospitals or aged care facilities to offer voluntary assisted dying which may restrict access to the process in regional areas or cause suffering to a patient as they were transferred to an organisation that did offer VAD.
It said the care navigator model developed in Victoria, which linked patients to willing doctors and health professionals, warranted consideration in Tasmania.
Premier Peter Gutwein said it was the government's intention to resume debate on the bill as the first order of business when Parliament resumed on March 2.
Government minister Michael Ferguson said the review raised more questions than answers.
He said government agencies that made submissions to the review identified 139 problems with the bill.
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Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
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