Williams PotoHEALTH PRACTITIONERS (REPLACEMENT OF STATUTORY REFERENCES TO MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS) BILLIn CommitteePart 1 Amendments to Accident Compensation Act 2001POTO WILLIAMS (Labour—Christchurch East): I rise to take a call on the Health Practitioners (Replacement of Statutory References to Medical Practitioners) Bill. This is a piece of legislation that the Labour Party is supporting. It does make some practical changes that we endorse. I will go through some of those changes and what we are supporting. The objectives of this particular piece of legislation are around the definition of what is a health practitioner ensuring that there is consistency in the regulatory framework definitions that govern health practitioners—namely the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act and its framework. Actually it recognises the way that we conduct our health services in the modern age. So we are very supportive of the changes that this piece of legislation recommends. There are about seven pieces of primary legislation that are impacted by the changes to the definition of medical or health practitioners and the types of functions and duties that they will be able to carry out under the auspices of those several pieces of legislation. I want to talk specifically about the definitions of health practitioners in terms of nurse practitioners the scope of practice that a nurse practitioner is now able to complete what is defined within the practising certificate of that nurse practitioner how the Nursing Council has been consulted and is engaged with that particular discussion and what that actually means in terms of the practical service that they are able to deliver. If we look at the separate pieces of legislation that this bill will amend—specifically the amendments to the Burial and Cremation Act 1964 what it looks at is determining who can sign off a certificate of death and the conditions that sit around that particular practice. It is an important duty and function that our health practitioners are required to do. There are some specific conditions under which a health practitioner can sign a certificate of death. The definition of the health practitioner is aligned to that within the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 and that Act gives some practical examples of the types of scenarios under which they will be able to issue a certificate of death. Under the amendments to the Children Young Persons and Their Families Act some changes are made specifically under section 2(1) inserted by clause 15 to the definition of psychiatric hospital which is now just referred to as a hospital. It has been a long time since we actually referred to mental health tertiary institutions as psychiatric hospitals so it is very much in line with our modern practices in terms of health. What it also does is it provides for those health practitioners to conduct examinations of children and young persons as defined within the Children Young Persons and Their Families Act specifically around sections 52 and 53. Under Part 5 there are amendments to the Land Transport Act specifically around the ability of health practitioners to conduct a couple of duties particularly when it comes to eye checks for those applying for a driver's licence and the taking of blood specimens for those who have been pulled over by the police in a drink-driving blitz for example and have been found to be potentially over the limit and a blood specimen is required. Also within the bill under Part 5A are amendments to the Medicines Act—these are specifically about the ability to look at the prescribing of drugs. Under the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act the amendments look at the scope of practice with regard to the assessments that one can conduct in relation to your mental well-being. That is often very important particularly in times when you will not have access to a psychiatrist or some other medical professional to conduct the mental health assessment. It may be on the weekend or it may be at a time when a person has been picked up by the police due to criminal activity or his or her behaviour and requires a mental health assessment. Lastly the bill makes amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act and that is particularly around dealing with controlled drugs. It is about the prescription and the administration of controlled drugs in a range of settings—whether it is in a veterinary setting where you are administering to animals or whether it is within a hospital or even a community setting such as those that would be provided by mental health community services. They are sensible and necessary amendments to those pieces of legislation and the Labour Party will be supporting this piece of legislation.