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.
Workforce supply & access
Everything tagged with this theme. The country and profession filters at the top still apply.
Reforms
Pharmacist prescribing: UTIs and state pharmacy schemes
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.
Psychology training redesign: a single five-year degree
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.
Scope of Practice Review (the Cormack review)
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.
Public funding for nurse practitioner and pharmacist primary care
Under a new federal interpretation of the Canada Health Act, medically necessary care that nurse practitioners, pharmacists and midwives provide in place of a doctor is to be publicly funded. The policy took effect in April 2026, with penalties from April 2027. Ontario missed the deadline.
Pharmacist prescribing in Ontario and Nova Scotia
Ontario pharmacists now prescribe for 28 minor ailments, after 9 were added on 1 July 2026; Nova Scotia pharmacists can prescribe for conditions including hypertension and type 2 diabetes.
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.
No reforms for these filters.
Explainers & analysis
The case for top-of-scope reform
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.
Library
Unleashing the Potential of our Health Workforce: Scope of Practice Review
Professor Mark Cormack's review found almost all primary-care professions face barriers to full scope that are unrelated to their education and competence, and made 18 recommendations to remove them.
Why it matters: A central document in Australia's 'top of scope' agenda, now backed by a $60m incentive for states.
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