How to Revoke or Update an Advance Care Directive in Tasmania

Why You Cannot Simply Edit an Existing ACD

Tasmanian law does not allow amendments to a registered Advance Care Directive. You cannot cross out a clause, add a new treatment refusal, or update a proxy's contact details on the existing form. Any change, no matter how small, requires a full revoke-and-replace cycle: formally revoke the old ACD, then execute and register an entirely new one.

This is by design. Part 5A of the Guardianship and Administration Act 1995 treats each ACD as a complete, self-contained record of your wishes at a specific point in time. Allowing piecemeal amendments would create ambiguity — clinicians would need to reconcile multiple versions, handwritten additions, and struck-through clauses during an emergency when every minute counts.

When You Should Revoke and Replace

A review and possible replacement is warranted after:

• A new medical diagnosis — a cancer diagnosis, a stroke, or the onset of dementia may fundamentally change which treatments you want to refuse or accept
• A change in your Enduring Guardian — if the person you named is no longer willing, able, or appropriate (due to a relationship breakdown, their own health decline, or death)
• A major life event — marriage, divorce, a new child or grandchild, or a move into residential aged care
• Legislative changes — the September 2024 amendments to Enduring Guardian duties may affect how your directive interacts with your guardian's obligations
• Routine review — even without a trigger event, reviewing your ACD annually is good practice

Step-by-Step Revocation Process

1. Confirm You Still Have Capacity

You can only revoke an ACD while you retain decision-making capacity. If you have lost the ability to understand, weigh, and communicate decisions about your medical care, the existing ACD remains in force and cannot be revoked by anyone — including your Enduring Guardian.

2. Complete a Notice of Revocation

For a written ACD, the revocation must be in writing. Use the TASCAT Notice of Revocation form if your ACD was registered. If your ACD was not registered (it was a common law directive or you chose not to register the statutory one), revoke it in the same manner in which it was made or by a written indication, clearly identify which ACD is being revoked, and notify everyone who has a copy.

3. Complete the Revocation Form

If you use a written indication or the TASCAT notice, complete and sign it in the manner required by the applicable form. The two-witness requirements for making a new ACD apply to the replacement document, not automatically to the revocation notice.

4. Notify TASCAT

If your original ACD was registered, submit the Notice of Revocation to TASCAT. They will update the register to reflect that the directive has been revoked. Processing typically takes 5 to 10 business days.

There is no fee for revoking an ACD with TASCAT.

5. Retrieve and Destroy Old Copies

This is the step people forget. If you distributed copies to your GP, hospital, Enduring Guardian, and family members, you must retrieve and destroy those copies — or at minimum, notify each holder in writing that the directive has been revoked.

An unrevoked copy sitting in a GP's patient file or on your My Health Record will be treated as valid by any clinician who accesses it. Outdated directives in circulation are a genuine safety risk.

6. Update Your My Health Record

Log in to your My Health Record through MyGov and remove the old ACD document. Once your new ACD is made and registered, upload the replacement.

Making the New ACD

After revocation, making a new ACD follows the same process as the original: approved THS form, clinically precise treatment refusal language, two independent witnesses, your signature, and optional TASCAT registration.

When drafting the replacement, take the opportunity to:

• Sharpen any vague language from the original (replace "no extraordinary measures" with specific intervention refusals that map to hospital GOC phases)
• Verify your Enduring Guardian's details and confirm they are still willing and able to serve
• Check that your refusal clauses do not contain clinical contradictions (the most common one: requesting CPR but refusing intubation)

What Happens If You Do Not Revoke Properly

If you make a new ACD without formally revoking the old one, two registered directives exist simultaneously. The legal position is that the later document supersedes the earlier one — but clinicians accessing the TASCAT register or your My Health Record may encounter the old version first. In an emergency, a paramedic or admitting doctor will act on whichever directive they locate. This is not a theoretical risk; it is a routine source of confusion in hospital settings.

Formal revocation eliminates the ambiguity entirely.

Revoking an Enduring Guardian at the Same Time

If you are replacing your ACD because your Enduring Guardian has changed, you will also need to revoke and replace the Enduring Guardian appointment. This is a separate process, lodged through Service Tasmania to TASCAT, with a revocation fee of $62.72 (FY 2026–2027). Re-appointing a new guardian costs $88.20.

The Tasmania Advance Directive & Living Will Kit includes a revocation and update checklist that walks through the full revoke-and-replace cycle for all three instruments — ACD, Enduring Guardian, and Enduring Power of Attorney — so you do not end up with stale directives in circulation that contradict your current wishes.

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