Review of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2019 (WA): Research Report.

The Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2019 (WA) was passed in December 2019, and came into effect on 1 July 2021. The legislation requires that the Act is reviewed at set intervals with the first review occurring as soon as practicable after the second anniversary of the Act's operation. An independent three-person panel was appointed to carry out the review. This article reports on one aspect of the review process which involved carrying out semi-structured interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders and formulating recommendations based on the data collected (and other evidence). Thematic analysis resulted in the identification of six main themes: awareness of Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD); accessing and navigating the VAD system; eligibility assessment; prescription, administration, disposal and post-death; VAD workforce; and VAD system design. Overall, the findings reveal that the WA VAD system is working well; however, several issues with the current system remain.