Relationship Agreement for the Public Hospital Sector
This template agreement has been developed jointly between the Department of Human Services (DHS) and representatives from health services and higher education providers to establish roles and responsibilities for a variety of activities in Victorian public health services, including clinical placements of both medical and nursing students.
The agreement has been developed to introduce consistency and clarity across Victoria, with the expectation that health services and higher education providers will uniformly adopt these as the basis of their contractual arrangements.
The template has, however, been designed to provide a degree of flexibility by giving higher education providers and health services the opportunity to include specific clauses relevant to their particular needs. For example, intellectual property, complaint resolution and cost-sharing clauses may be customised on a case-by-case basis to suit the individual needs of the various institutions concerned.
This Agreement is to be read and construed in conjunction with any current student clinical placement agreement between a health service and higher education provider. If there is any conflict or inconsistency between this Agreement and the student clinical placement agreement, this Agreement prevails to the extent of the conflict or inconsistency.
The Victorian Managed Insurance Authority, which provides the Victorian Government with risk management and insurance services, has endorsed the relevant clauses on insurance and indemnity, hence these clauses should not be altered in any way.
For more information, a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) has been compiled. The Agreement and the FAQ can be accessed from this page (at the “Download” box on right).
If further assistance is required, please contact the Education and Research Team, Service and Workforce Planning Branch, DHS, at workforce@dhs.vic.gov.au or telephone 03 9096 7523.