Clark DavidHEALTH PRACTITIONERS COMPETENCE ASSURANCE AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon Dr DAVID CLARK (Minister of Health): I move That the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Health Committee to consider the bill.The Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 was groundbreaking legislation acknowledged internationally as being significant for health professional regulation. With a focus on protecting public health and safety the Act provides a consistent accountability regime for practitioners' practice conduct and competence. Currently there are 23 health professions regulated under the Act. The Act protects the health and safety of members of the public by ensuring health practitioners are competent and fit to practise their professions. In order to claim to be members of their profession health practitioners must be suitably qualified and registered with an appropriate responsible authority such as the Nursing Council of New Zealand.There have been two reviews of the Act an operational review and a policy review to explore the underlying principles of the Act. The reviews found that the Act was working well but that a number of improvements could be made. Sadly these changes were not made under the previous Government's watch.This bill will implement recommendations arising from both reviews. In particular the amendments will improve the operation of the Act through providing tangible evidence of responsible authorities' performance better visibility of decisions about health practitioner disciplinary proceedings greater recognition of the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and cooperation and better workforce information.I would now like to outline some of the key changes covered by the bill. The first change is the introduction of performance reviews for responsible authorities—that is the authorities that register and certify the competence of health professionals within their scope of practice. Currently there is no way for the public to be certain that responsible authorities are carrying out their functions as intended by the Act and regulating their respective professions to improve public safety. This bill will introduce five-yearly performance reviews for responsible authorities to provide the Crown and the public with an assurance that those authorities are carrying out their functions effectively and efficiently. These reviews would be carried out by independent reviewers against a set of indicators developed by the Ministry of Health in consultation with each responsible authority. The resulting reports will be published on the authorities' websites.Performance monitoring will enable continuous improvement within the regulatory system make it easier to promote good practice and increase consistency across responsible authorities' policies and processes. This will assure the public that the regulatory framework for health professionals is operating as it should.The second key change involves better information about disciplinary decisions. Currently there is a limited amount of information available to the public about responsible authority decisions in relation to complaints about registered health practitioners and the processes for making those decisions. This bill will require responsible authorities to release information about decisions they have made on practitioner practice to the person who has notified them about concerns relating to a practitioner's competence.It will also require responsible authorities to develop policies that set out how they make decisions about releasing the names of health practitioners whose competence fitness to practice or conduct has been reviewed or investigated. Health practitioners whose conduct has failed to meet expected standards may be named when it is in the public interest but this will be balanced with practitioners' rights to privacy and natural justice.Greater transparency about decision making will improve public confidence in the process. This approach is consistent with protocols followed by the Health and Disability Commissioner the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal and overseas regulatory authorities.The third key change is to support better teamwork among health practitioners. Many complaints to the Health and Disability Commissioner arise from failures in teamwork and inter-professional communications. A cohesive team approach across the health and disability system is integral to public safety and achieving better health outcomes for New Zealanders. This bill will provide greater recognition of the importance of teamwork and inter-professional communications in order to support integrated healthcare for New Zealanders. Responsible authorities will be required to promote and facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration and cooperation in the delivery of health services. This will support the one-team approach of the New Zealand Health Strategy.The fourth key change is to support better workforce information for health workforce planning and forecasting. Having good work information is critical to ensuring we have sufficient health professionals with the right skills in the areas where they are needed. This bill will give responsible authorities a legal mandate for collecting data such as date of birth and place of employment and providing this to the Ministry of Health to support workforce forecasting and modelling. This will enable better planning for developing the workforce that will meet New Zealand's future health needs. Whenever workforce information is published it will be anonymised or summarised to protect health professionals' privacy.This bill includes a number of other amendments that will clarify the operation of the Act improve efficiency of processes and ensure consistency with other legislation. These amendments include the following: clarification that responsible authorities can receive and act on information from members of the public about the practice conduct or competence of health practitioners; reducing the administrative burden of reporting relating to quality assurance activities; providing for the amalgamation of responsible authorities when it is in the public interest; and clarification that the responsible authorities are responsible for meeting the administrative costs of the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal.In conclusion public expectations technology and the way health services are delivered will continue to develop and change. Health legislation needs to keep pace with those changes. I must commend the previous Ministers for progressing the reviews as required by law but we do need legislation to update our health law so that we can make sure that it's up to date and fit for purpose. The amendments included in the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Amendment Bill will contribute to delivering a flexible integrated health workforce safe practice and a regulatory system the public can count on. I commend this bill to the House.