Hon Simeon Brown
Minister of Health

Hon David Seymour
Associate Minister of Health

The Government is making changes to prescriber regulations, giving New Zealanders better access to medicines, Health Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Health Minister David Seymour say.

“We are committed to ensuring Kiwis have access to timely, quality healthcare in their communities,” Mr Brown says.

“Making our health system more efficient and enabling our health workforce to better care for their patients is a key part of this.

“Changes to the Medicines Act introduced to Parliament last week will give nurse practitioners, who are highly skilled health professionals, increased prescribing rights within their scope of practice.

“Nurse practitioners work in a range of environments, including in rural areas and in aged residential care, and provide a key role caring for patients.

“These changes will mean Nurse Practitioners will be able to prescribe more medicines, providing more and better continuity of care for their patients.

“They will also mean that when there are supply shortages of approved medicines, other professions, such as dentists, pharmacist prescribers, midwives, and registered nurse prescribers, will be able to prescribe replacement medicines that are funded by Pharmac.

”Together, these changes are about increasing access to medicines for patients and supporting the Government’s objective of ensuring all New Zealanders have access to timely and quality healthcare.”

The changes are included in the Medicines Amendment Bill, which amends the Medicines Act 1981.

“The Medicines Amendment Bill also enables medicines to be approved in less than 30 days if the product has approval from two recognised overseas jurisdictions. This provides a quicker and easier option for pharmaceutical companies to get products approved in New Zealand,” Mr Seymour says.

“We know expanding access to medicines significantly improves New Zealanders’ health and life outcomes.

“We’ve already taken a range of actions to give Kiwis better access to medicines. In addition to regulatory changes, we have made a record investment in Pharmac and provided additional funding for cancer and other medicines.

“The Medicines Amendment Bill also updates the settings for the Medicines Classification Committee, which has an important role in providing access to medicines. The Bill modernises the membership requirements for the Committee and removes outdated provisions from the Act.”

The Government is also progressing work on a new Medical Products Bill, to replace the Medicines Act 1981.

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