Clark DavidHEALTH PRACTITIONERS COMPETENCE ASSURANCE AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingHon Dr DAVID CLARK (Minister of Health): I move That the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Amendment Bill be now read a third time.I wish to start by thanking members across the House for their support for this important legislation which will amend and update the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003. Colleagues from across the House have expressed their support at the first and second readings and it is appreciated. It's an example of the Parliament working collectively on what might not be a particularly controversial piece of legislation but is actually an incredibly important piece of legislation for public safety and for public confidence in the services that our health practitioners present.This bill implements recommendations arising from two reviews of the Act. The first was in 2007 and it looked at whether the Act was really operating as it was intended and whether it needed clarifying in terms of how it operated and a number of legislative amendments were put forward. That first review in 2007 was followed in 2012 by a more strategic review of the Act which examined whether the underlying policy settings remained appropriate. A number of recommendations arose from that second review which included: providing tangible evidence of responsible authorities' performance better visibility of decisions about practitioner practice greater recognition of the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and cooperation and better workforce information. It's those two reviews which form the substance of the bill that is before the House. It also includes recommendations proposed by the Health Committee following consultation with the public as part of a select committee process that went from May to September last year.The key provisions in the bill though largely remain the same as before they went to the Health Committee for consideration in September. It introduces performance reviews for responsible authorities and these reviews will mean that the public will know if a responsible authority is carrying out its functions as intended by the Act. The introduction of five-yearly performance reviews means that there is a greater assurance that those functions are being carried out. It's part of building public confidence in the Act and in its operations and in the professions that are regulated by it. It will ensure that those respective professions are upholding public safety as they are expected to do.Changes to the bill mean that we will have better information provided to people who've asked responsible authorities to make investigations into decisions about professional competence or conduct. Currently there's very limited information available to the public when an investigation is conducted and again this will ensure that there's public confidence in the system. It also is true that the bill clarifies that the responsible authorities can receive and act on information from members of the public. So it's a much more I guess modern way of doing things and is all aimed at making sure that there is confidence in the Act and that it operates in a modern way.Responsible authorities will be required also to promote and facilitate collaboration and cooperation between different professions and there's plenty of evidence that shows that that is important for health outcomes. In fact and indeed many of the complaints that the Health and Disability Commissioner receives are about poor communication between different professions or a lack of teamwork—essentially where different professions are not cooperating. So the bill contains provisions that emphasise the importance of a cohesive team approach across the health and disability system and in order to achieve those public safety benefits that we know come from that.Another important thing that's in there that was in the original bill is the supply of and collection of workforce data on health professionals to enable better forecasting and to make sure that we have the right professionals with the right skills in the areas where they are needed. It gives responsible authorities a legal mandate to collect that data and that includes things like their date of birth place of employment and so on. Equally the bill is clear that that information will be anonymised anywhere that it's published; it's not there to identify individual practitioners but to understand workforce trends so that better forecasting can be done in terms of future health system needs.I'd also like to highlight one of the other proposed amendments that was made after the bill was considered by the Health Committee and that is that the bill will ensure the Act allows responsible authorities as regulators to act immediately to suspend a practitioner's practising certificate in instances where there is a risk of serious harm to the public pending a prosecution or investigation. This change will help ensure increased public safety where practitioners may pose serious harm to patients. There has been a lot of backwards-ing and forwards-ing with the different regulated professions—if you'll excuse my England—in order to reach a point where those who are regulated are comfortable that we have the right regulation in place to make sure that we can ensure that public safety is protected whilst also trying to preserve the natural justice of those who have been complained against.The bill also moves us into the electronic age. All of the responsible authorities submitted that electronic communications should be allowed in the Act. This is in one sense hygiene but it is important and it means that annual practising certificates can be sent electronically and notices can be served electronically and it will improve ultimately the efficiency of the operations of these regulators. Indeed that's one of the overarching purposes: to show that the efficiency and effectiveness of these regulators is being monitored and is suitable. Responsible authorities will also have specific power to revoke the accreditation of an education institution's qualification if necessary. That's another change that has been made. The bill also includes cultural competence provisions with specific mention of cultural competencies that will enable effective and respective interaction with Māori. Again there was much submission on this I understand at the select committee. Others will no doubt speak on this during their turn in this Parliament but it is anticipated that having an explicit mention of Māori will contribute in part to increasing Māori health disparities. Hon Peeni Henare: Good work Minister. Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: The bill includes a discretion—thank you colleagues—for responsible authorities to refer health practitioners convicted of certain offences such as drink driving for treatment or counselling rather than simply referring them to a professional conduct committee. Again that seems a sensible and modern way of handling things. So in conclusion the Act does already provide a sound framework for protecting the public but this bill updates it. It improves public safety by fine-tuning aspects of the Act allowing more efficient operation and making sure that it achieves its purpose and is seen to achieve its purpose through those additional transparency measures that have been introduced. The public should have great confidence in the professions that serve them and this is one way of ensuring not only that they are operating effectively but that that can be transparently seen. So it is my pleasure to commend this bill to the House.