Doctors will no longer risk being referred to AHPRA for raising voluntary assisted dying as an option for terminally ill patients under a Victorian Government pledge to relax its five-year-old laws.

When Victoria became the first state to legalise voluntary assisted dying (VAD) in 2019, then-Premier Daniel Andrews declared it “the most conservative model in the world”.

Among its restrictions was that doctors could only talk about VAD “on the patient’s request” and doctors who proactively raised the subject with patients would be referred to AHPRA.

On Thursday, Victorian Minister for Health Mary-Anne Thomas said a review of VAD’s first five years — during which 1282 patients had died through VAD — had recommended scrapping the gag clause and that the government had agreed.