WA health system ethics reform

The WA Health system currently has eight HRECs and ethics administrative offices. These HRECs and their associated offices will be consolidated into one HREC, the WA Health Central HREC, which will be supported by CORE.

The move to the central model will be progressively integrated across the system and is anticipated to be complete by mid-2025.

The transition will occur in two phases:

Phase 1 – complete

• The establishment of a CORE to facilitate the triaging of projects between existing HREC’s and to provide administrative support to the planned WA Health Central HREC.
• The redirection of new, more than low risk project applications intended for review by the WA Country Health Service (WACHS), North Metropolitan Health Service – Mental Health (NMHS–MH), and Women and Newborn Health Service (WNHS) HRECs to the existing WA Health HRECs which are certified to participate in the National Mutual Acceptance (NMA) scheme.
• The establishment of the WA Health Central HREC.

Phase 2

1. The redirection of new project applications intended for review by the Department of Health, Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) and the North Metropolitan Area Mental Health Service (NMAMHS) HRECs to the WA Health Central HREC [Commenced in August 2024]
2. The redirection of the new, more than low risk, non-NMA project applications intended for review by the Sir Charles Gairdner Osborne Park Health Care Group (SCGOPHCG) HREC to the WA Health Central HREC [Commenced in September 2024]
3. The redirection of the new, more than low risk, non-NMA project applications intended for review by South Metropolitan Health Service (SMHS) HREC to the WA Health Central HREC [Commenced in late September 2024]
4. The redirection of the new, more than low risk, non-NMA project applications intended for review by the Child and Adolescent Health Service (CAHS) HREC to the WA Health Central HREC [Scheduled to commence in Q1 2025]

Monitoring submissions (amendments, safety reports, annual progress reports and site and project final reports) for projects previously approved by the existing HRECs should continue to be submitted to them for review until you are advised otherwise.

Oversight of all previously approved projects will then be transferred to the WA Health Central HREC with the system-wide integration anticipated to be complete by mid-2025.

The progression of the integration will be informed by ongoing evaluation.

Throughout the transition Health Service Providers (HSP’s) and the CORE will offer support to researchers as they navigate the research ethics process.

HSPs will continue to support the development of ethics applications prior to submission and the CORE will manage the submission and review processes as well as providing support for navigating the Research Governance Service (RGS).

At each step of the reform, researchers will receive updates via various channels from the Department of Health, the Research Governance Service, and HSP ethics offices outlining the impact of any changes and seeking feedback about the process.

HREC contact details:

Effect on research ethics offices at Health Service Providers (HSPs)

The way each HSP Ethics Office approaches the opportunities this reform provides will be dependent on the specific needs of that HSP. As ethics administration is gradually transitioned to the CORE, existing HSP ethics offices will have greater capacity to provide specialised researcher support with preparing ethics and governance submissions at their sites.

New WA Health Central HREC committee meetings

During the initial stage of Phase 2 of the reform implementation, the WA Health Central HREC will meet once a month. The frequency of meetings will gradually increase as each existing HREC is integrated into the new structure.

Refer to the WA Health Central HREC website for the current meeting schedule.

When the WA Health Central HREC is fully established, there will be up to four generalist committees and two committees that focus on particular areas of research (large data sets, data linkage and research involving Mothers, Infants, Children and Adolescents and the foetus (MICA)).

• A generalist committee meeting will be held once a week between February to December (excluding public holidays).
• The committees with special focus will each meet once a month between February to December (excluding public holidays).