Nurse Practitioners Want More Movement

Nurse Practitioners Want More Movement On Removal Of Legislative Barriers

Rural Nurse Practitioners want urgent and immediate action to clear away legislation that often stops them from doing their job and treating patients effectively and efficiently.

For example, simply signing a WINZ form that enables patients access to a disability allowance is not possible under existing legislation. Currently, a GP needs to sign-off a WINZ disability allowance form. Nurses Practitioners want this barrier removed as soon as possible in line with a move towards integrated family health care centres and the general practice team approach to medicine and patient care especially in rural areas.

Nurse Practitioners at the New Zealand Rural General Practice Network conference in Christchurch have spoken out strongly about this and other legislative barriers that often prevent them doing their job in rural and remote areas of New Zealand.

Nurse Practitioners are often the first line of health care, or work in collaboration with, or in some cases in the absence of doctors, in many rural and remote areas of the country.

The inability to sign off a form that will give a patient access to not only treatment but services such as transport is causing severe disadvantage to vulnerable people in rural communities, Nurse Practitioners at the conference said.

They made their feelings clear to Minister of Health Tony Ryall during the political session at the Christchurch conference on Friday. Mr Ryall told the delegates gathered that he would go away and relook at the issue of legislation in this respect.

ENDS

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