Sparkebeat - Health Law Update - Issue 15

13 May 2026

Marie-Clare Elder
Partner
Sparke Helmore Lawyers

Marie-Clare Elder
Partner
Sparke Helmore Lawyers
t: +61 2 9260 2491

Marie-Clare joined the Commercial Insurance team as a partner in January 2024. Marie-Clare has been admitted to practice for 20 years and is a health law specialist, with a long history of working in the industry. She is based in Sydney.

Marie Panuccio
Special Counsel
Sparke Helmore Lawyers

Marie Panuccio
Special Counsel
Sparke Helmore Lawyers
t: +61 2 9260 2483

Marie specialises in the defence of claims for professional negligence, coronial inquiries, professional conduct complaints and disciplinary proceedings and criminal matters on behalf of medical indemnity insurers, medical practitioners, nurses and healthcare facilities.

Welcome to the fifteenth issue of the Health Update - Sparkebeat, where Sparke Helmore’s market leading national Health team brings you the latest in local news and knowledge from across Australia and abroad.

The past six months has delivered a wave of developments across Australia’s health and regulatory landscape, from renewed scrutiny of Triple Zero performance following high-profile delays, to fresh trend data from the Office of the Queensland Health Ombudsman highlighting persistent pressure points in patient safety and complaint handling. Alongside this, the sector's push to drive healthcare-associated infections to zero continues to sharpen, while Ahpra advances its work on adding sexual-misconduct-related information to the register of practitioners.

Emerging risks are also in focus, with new commentary on AI’s hidden pitfalls in healthcare claims and insurance, a striking case involving a claim bought nearly two decades after negligent surgery, and ongoing debate about the safe integration of AI into medical devices.

We hope you find this issue informative and useful. If there are any topics you would like us to cover in the future, please contact Marie-Clare.

We would like to acknowledge the contribution of Mark Doepel, Aimee Dash, Kerri Thomas, Sophie Pennington, Jehan Mata, Mark Sainsbury, Lauren McHugh, Lani Carter, Hamish Fraser, Jason Kwan, Justine Anderson, Dinah Amrad, Emma Frylink, Sara Wainwright, Zara Smith, Ella Sourdin Brown, Kaylee Nguyen.

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