Doctors, Nurses, Practice Owners And Their Professional Bodies All Urge The Minister To Pause Over Physician Associates

Doctors, nurses, practice owners and colleges have joined to express their strong reservations to the Government over plans to sanction and regulate the employment of physician associates in the New Zealand health system.

Health unions ASMS, NZRDA, NZNO and APEX, along with the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners and College of Nurses of Aotearoa New Zealand, and the General Practice Owners Association Aotearoa GENPRO have written to the Minister of Health Dr Shane Reti before he brings any formal proposal on physician associates to Cabinet.

"There is no task that a physician associate would potentially perform, that is not already being undertaken by a currently regulated health worker who is already trained and employed here in Aotearoa," says ASMS Executive Director Sarah Dalton.

"Right now it appears the Government is not providing the funding to employ enough doctors and nurses. The last thing we should do is spend time and money setting up a new system of vocational registration for a whole new profession when the Government isn’t currently spending enough to fund the existing workforces."

"All the signatories to this letter support growing the health workforce and want to ensure primary and secondary health care is staffed to safe levels, more people can train as healthcare professionals, and more patients get timely and equitable access to healthcare. It just makes sense to do that through existing occupations rather than inventing new ones."

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