PA Regulation

Find the latest news and updates about PA regulation in New Zealand

Targeted Consultation

The Ministry of Health has proposed Regulating the Physician Associate profession under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003. Please be sure to complete the questions you received from The Ministry of Health. 

Physician Associates are currently working throughout New Zealand in many underserved communities where workforce challenges are significant and getting worse. Physician Associates are becoming residents in New Zealand and are here in many cases for the long run. NZPAS and these professionals strive to do what is needed so the profession can be a partial solution to the New Zealand health workforce shortage crisis.

Strengthening the future of the national healthcare workforce with a fit for service profession is and has always been the main focus and ultimate task beyond the end result of improving access to healthcare for all.

Physician Associates, although unregulated and in small numbers in New Zealand, are a profession that is internationally recognized as a valued and integral member of multi-disciplinary health care teams.  In New Zealand Physician Associates have the potential to make an even greater contribution. Regulating PAs in New Zealand, like other countries, can ensure these professionals can work at full scope in the future.

What would Regulation accomplish?

• Protect, promote and maintain a framework for the health, well-being and safety of the public. Public safety is paramount and without regulation that is reduced.
• Promote and offer assurance of the public confidence in the PA profession.
• Allow for the appointment of a Regulatory Authority (RA) and a required practicing certificate confirmed by the RA to support and ensure each and every PA maintains professional standards and conduct like other medical practitioners already do in New Zealand
• Allow the development of a PA training program within the country
• Allow PAs to work at full scope, which includes prescribing privileges that PAs are already trained to do and hold in other countries but is reserved for regulated professions only in NZ.
• Movement towards a PA education and training program along with a support system to close the gap on cultural inequities that exist within the system.
• Full indemnity protection for the PA profession so supervising doctors are relieved of doing an extra job meant to be done through regulation, thus reducing stress for doctors.

Where are we with regulation?

NZPAS President Shelly Collins breaks down the current state of regulation at the GPCME 2023 Conference in Rotorua.

Road to Regulation

• 2017: NZPAS submitted an application to the Ministry of Health for PAs to be regulated under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act of 2003
• The application has been making its way through the Ministry of Health’s prescribed assessment process.
• The application has successfully passed the Expert Panel stage and has completed the Targeted Public Consultation stage.
• The Ministry of Health is working on obtaining a Regulatory Authority for the profession.