Equal prescribing status for nurse practitioners to doctors and dentists is one step closer after the second reading of the Medicines Amendment bill last month.
The bill – which reported back from the Health Select Committee last year after hearing public submissions – includes the long awaited move to give nurse practitioners (and optometrists) authorised prescribing status within their scope of practice.
Government minister Maurice Williamson (leading the second reading on the behalf of absent associate health minister Peter Dunne) said the move to align NP and optometrists prescribing rights with medical practitioners and midwives acknowledged the “safe and appropriate prescribing practice of these groups over the past seven years”.
He said there was broad support for amending the definition of authorised prescriber but a small number of submissions raised concerns about extending prescribing rights in terms of patient safety, fragmentation of care and increased costs to the sector. “This reflects, in part, a general opposition to the extension of prescribing rights to people other than doctors.”
His second reading speech also noted the bill created a new category of delegated prescriber allowing prescribing under a delegated order issued by an authorised prescriber.
“Generally, there was cautious support for the new category of ‘delegated prescriber’ from medical and pharmacy organisations, and opposition from nursing groups,” he noted. He said that the proposed delegated category added a prescribing “option” for professional groups and it was up to “regulatory authorities to determine what form of prescribing rights, if any, they intend to seek for their profession”.
The Nursing Council is currently consulting on two new prescribing proposals for registered nurses under the existing designated prescriber category currently being used for diabetes nurse specialist prescribing. (Submissions close on Friday April 19 and the consultation document can be found at: www.nursingcouncil.org.nz or www.nursingcouncil.org.nz/index.cfm/1,283,html/Consultation-on-registered-nurse-prescribing )
Meanwhile the Medicines Amendment Bill now needs to go through its committee stage and third reading in parliament. A spokesman for Peter Dunne’s office said it was not known when these next steps would take place.
