Paramedic Registration Update
Paramedic Registration under the Health Practitioners Competence
Assurance (HPCA) Act 2003 was announced in November 2019. This is a
significant moment for the paramedic profession in New Zealand.
From 1 January 2020 paramedics are formally recognised and registered
under the HPCA. This will give additional assurance to the public of New
Zealand that paramedics are appropriately qualified and competent to
practice. This will also enable the establishment of Te Kaunihera Manapou Paramedic
Council (the Council )– equivalent to the Medical Council or the Nursing Council.
Importantly, the independent Council will be made up of both
paramedics and lay people who will oversee registered paramedics into
the future.
Nominations for members of the Council will be sought early
in 2020. Once the Council is established, it will spend some time
setting up the new standards and processes required before all
paramedics must be registered.
In the meantime, we have established a small work group, The
Paramedic Regulatory Advisory to start collating some of the
documentation the Council will need once they are in place.
It is important to note, this is a work group and will be disbanded, once
the Council are selected by the Minister of Health through the
Appointments Committee process. All decisions regarding paramedic
registration will be made by the Council in due course.
This interim work group has been selected based on the individual’s
networks, involvement in establishing paramedic regulation elsewhere,
access to relevant standards, documentation, data and knowledge of the
regulatory framework.
We expect a lot of consultation will commence in the second quarter of
2020 once the Council start meeting – this will include
professional standards, codes of practice, cultural competencies etc.
In order to keep registration costs to a minimum, we have partnered with
the Nursing Council to assist the paramedic profession to establish the
Council. This will not only minimise cost, but we get to
draw on the Nursing Council’s vast experience in developing regulatory
processes and to share their existing administrative systems.
There will be a lot of work for the Council but at this
point we are aiming for registration to commence in the latter part of
2020.
Kind regards,
The Paramedic Regulatory Advisory WG