Consultation documents

The NZMA would like to hear its members' views, in order to steer the direction of its submissions to various stakeholders in the wider health sector. On this page you will find copies of current consultation documents for comment. Please forward all comments to the Chief Executive Officer.

Review of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act (HPCA) Act
The consultation document on the review of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance (HPCA) Act was released for consultation in 2012. 

The primary purpose of the Act is to protect the health and safety of the public. The review however appeared to be an attempt to broaden the focus of what is essentially a regulatory Act to consider wider health issues. The review proposed that New Zealand move away from a focus on hospital services and admissions and towards “better, sooner, more convenient” service delivery through the integration of primary care with other parts of the health service. “The core safety function of HPCA Act needs to be balanced against ensuring that its indirect (but strong) influence on the shape of the workforce matches the needs of a changing sector”.

The consultation also focused on the Responsible Authorities (RAs) and suggested that the fact that RAs were designed to work independently along professional boundaries may be out of sync with how boundaries were increasingly shifting and becoming less distinct in complex clinical environments. It noted that consumer care and the protection of consumer safety were increasingly dependent on how multidisciplinary teams and clinical networks operate.

The Review also looked at principles around consumers, cost-effectiveness and safety. Read the consultation document here and the NMZA's submission here.