Nurse practitioners and midwives: doctor collaboration requirement removed
Since November 2024, nurse practitioners and endorsed midwives can bill Medicare and prescribe PBS medicines without a formal collaborative arrangement with a doctor.
Supervision & delegation
Everything tagged with this theme. The country and profession filters at the top still apply.
Reforms
Updated 5+1 internship guidelines
The first major update to the psychology internship guidelines in over a decade took effect in December 2025, removing the case study requirement.
Physician associates regulated by the Medical Council
Physician associates came under the Medical Council of New Zealand on 1 October 2026. Existing practitioners must apply by 30 November 2026.
Pharmacy: supervision loosened and prescribing at registration
Most new UK pharmacists now register as independent prescribers, and a 2025 law lets pharmacists authorise pharmacy technicians to supervise dispensing from December 2026.
Physician associates: expansion, regulation, and the Leng review
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.
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Library
The Leng review: an independent review into physician associate and anaesthesia associate professions
An independent review found the evidence on the roles weak and based on observational data. It made 18 recommendations, including renaming the roles 'physician assistant' and 'physician assistant in anaesthesia', and requiring a named supervising doctor for each physician assistant. The government accepted all of them.
Why it matters: In our view, a template for how a government re-tightens a role after scaling it ahead of the evidence.
Decision on proposed Psychology Assistant role
The Board approved a registered Psychology Assistant role with safeguards: no diagnosis, a focus on mild or less complex needs, mandatory supervision and team-only practice. It received 441 submissions.
Why it matters: New Zealand's first registered assistant tier in psychology. Its safeguards are specific enough to monitor.
Susan Pollitt: Prevention of Future Deaths report
A senior coroner found that an ascitic drain, which a junior doctor had decided to place, was not clinically indicated. The physician associate who inserted it was unaware of local guidance, left it in for 21 hours and directed that it be clamped, which the coroner found was unwarranted. The report also raises the absence of a regulator at the time, title confusion, and a competency sign-off that covered only the technical skill of inserting the drain, not consent, risk factors or aftercare.
Why it matters: Its first concern was that there was then no regulator at all, so it does not show that proportionate regulation fails; its other concerns (training, supervision, the title, competency sign-off) remain relevant under regulation.
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