Australia · Canada · New Zealand · United Kingdom
Governments and regulators in four countries are proposing shorter training routes, widening who can do what, and changing how health professions are regulated. They call it "right-touch", "right-sized" or "top of scope". We track each reform, set out the evidence, and ask one question: has anyone checked that it is safe?
Every reform has its own page, with its status and the date we last checked it.
We set out each government's or regulator's own reasons, in their words where we can, and give the case for every change alongside the concerns.
Every page is checked against its sources before it is published, and our analysis labels its claims as evidence, survey or assertion.
Pharmacists can now treat urinary tract infections in every state, and Queensland and Victoria have made wider prescribing schemes permanent. NSW and Queensland made schemes permanent before their evaluations were published, and Victoria announced its decision days before publishing its evaluation summary.
The Psychology Board of Australia consulted on replacing the six-year route to registration with one five-year degree, removing the internship year and the national exam for domestic graduates, and will recommend the change to the federal government.
An independent review made 18 recommendations to let primary-care professions work to their full scope. The federal government is now offering states $60m to remove barriers.
Ontario's psychology regulator voted to register master's graduates as psychologists and cut post-degree experience from four years to one. The proposal is now with Ontario's Health Minister; the title change would also need the legislature to amend the Act.
New Zealand's bill would let the Health Minister direct the health regulators on policy and let a ministerial committee overturn registration refusals. Parliament has since been dissolved for the November 2026 election.
Planned to grow to 10,000, physician associates came under GMC regulation in 2024. After coroners' findings and an independent review, the roles are to be renamed and restricted, but not abolished.
Counsellors and psychotherapists remain self-regulated with unprotected titles. National standards were published in 2025 and a consultancy is recommending a model.
An independent review found the scheme had "become too inward-looking, too fragmented, and too slow to respond to emerging risks and opportunities". Health Ministers accepted governance changes in May 2026 but deferred an integrated, risk-based framework for regulating all health professions.
Since November 2024, nurse practitioners and endorsed midwives can bill Medicare and prescribe PBS medicines without a formal collaborative arrangement with a doctor.
No tracked reforms match these filters yet. See all reforms.
In Australia and Ontario, the route to the protected psychologist title is set to get shorter. New Zealand has created a registered assistant tier, and the UK assures a wider psychological workforce through voluntary registers. We have found no outcome evidence for any of it yet.
Where the idea came from, what it actually says, how governments use it, and the strongest criticisms. A primer in plain English.
In Australia, pharmacy scope reforms have been made permanent before any independent evaluation was published. In the UK, physician associates were scaled up with no study of safety incidents. We think that is the strongest, evidence-based criticism of these reforms.
The strongest version of the argument for letting nurses, pharmacists and others do more, written from the reformers' own sources.
Nothing written for these filters yet.
An opinion piece by Ian Powell, former executive director of ASMS, arguing New Zealand's HPCA Amendment Bill gives the Health Minister too much power over independent health regulators.
Why it matters: Captures what we see as the main criticism in New Zealand: political control of regulators, rather than lighter-touch regulation as such.
The APS says it does 'not support the proposed five-year model proceeding in its current form', citing safety, the drop in qualification level, placements, and an undefined assistant role.
Why it matters: The APS's formal, Board-endorsed position on what the Psychology Board calls a once-in-a-generation reform of psychology training.
AAPi's summary of the Psychology Board's proposal: a single five-year degree to registration, no internship or national exam for domestic graduates, and a possible assistant exit. AAPi sees access benefits but is concerned about the drop to AQF Level 8.
Why it matters: A plain-English summary of the model the Board consulted on in April 2026. AAPi later said it does not support a five-year AQF Level 8 degree, and in September 2026 the Board said it will drop the assistant exit from the reform.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the BMA's challenge to the GMC's use of the term 'medical professionals' for both doctors and physician and anaesthesia associates in Good Medical Practice. A separate judicial review by Anaesthetists United, seeking national limits on scope of practice, was dismissed by the High Court in September 2025.
Why it matters: The courts found the GMC acted lawfully on both terminology and scope of practice. In our view, change will have to come through policy, not litigation.
A rapid review of the government's 2025 Putting Patients First proposals through the lens of equity and Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations.
Why it matters: A critique, published as a Viewpoint in the NZMJ, of the 2025 Putting Patients First proposals, focused on what they mean for Māori health and cultural safety.
Ontario's regulator announces that its Board approved registering psychologists from approved graduate programs, cutting the experience requirement for master's candidates from four years to one, and recognising accrediting bodies outside the US. It says it will keep working on approaches that support 'fairness, labour mobility, and improved access to care'.
Why it matters: The regulator's own words. Quote this rather than second-hand descriptions of the change.
No library items match these filters yet.