NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE, No. 138

4 OCTOBER 2013

MEDICAL COUNCIL OF NEW ZEALAND

SCOPES OF PRACTICE AND PRESCRIBED QUALIFICATIONS

Commencement

This Notice is given pursuant to sections 11 and 12 of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003, and comes into effect on 4 November 2013. On that date, it replaces the 2012 Notice of Scopes of Practice and Prescribed Qualifications* and subsequent amendment notices listed below under Previous Notices.

Introduction

Under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003, the Medical Council of New Zealand (“Council”) is required to define the separate areas of medicine and specialties that make up the practice of medicine in New Zealand. The Council’s role is to identify for each of these areas (known as “scopes of practice” or “scopes”) the aspects of the practice of medicine covered by each scope. Medical practitioners seeking to practise in New Zealand must first be registered with the Medical Council in one or more relevant scopes of practice.

The Medical Council is also responsible for formally “prescribing” the specific qualifications that medical practitioners must have to be eligible to be registered in each of the scopes of practice. These prescribed qualifications will vary between the different scopes of practice. In many cases, a “prescribed” qualification will be an identified medical degree, or fellowship of a medical college, but in some cases the Council will require a combination of a medical degree, and additional training, or approved experience. In such cases, the medical practitioners will be required to meet all these requirements before he or she will be recognised as having the “prescribed qualification”.

To be able to practise medicine in New Zealand, a registered medical practitioner must hold a current practising certificate. To be eligible for a practising certificate, a medical practitioner must meet any recertification requirements set by the Council.

This Supplement to the New Zealand Gazette provides the current complete list of the scopes of practice within which medical practitioners may practise medicine in New Zealand, and the associated, prescribed qualifications. Where reference is made to relevant information published on the Council’s website, this can be found at

www.mcnz.org.nz

Previous notices

The Council last published a full list of the scopes of practice (and associated prescribed qualifications) for the profession of medicine on 3 February 2012*. Since then, the Council has consulted on, and approved, the following changes to the content of that supplement:

1. Changing the name of the Accident and Medical Practice scope of practice to the Urgent Care scope of practice (published as Notice of Amendment to Scope of Practice Prescribed by the Medical Council of New Zealand 2012†) That notice came into effect on 1 August 2012.

2. Adding the new vocational scope of practice of Pain Medicine (published as Notice of New Scope of Practice and Qualification Prescribed by the Medical Council of New Zealand 2012‡) That notice came into effect on 3 December 2012.

3. Changes to the prescribed qualification for the locum tenens scope of practice (published as Notice of Amendment to Qualification Prescribed by the Medical Council of New Zealand 2012§) That notice came into effect on 14 January 2013.

• Supplement to the New Zealand Gazette, 3 February 2012, No. 12, page 283

† New Zealand Gazette, 28 June 2012, No. 73, page 2087

‡ New Zealand Gazette, 8 November 2012, No. 134, page 3880

§ New Zealand Gazette, 20 December 2012, No. 151, page 4494