About the Council

The Chinese Medicine Council of New Zealand (the Council) was established as a Responsible Authority (RA) under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 (HPCA Act) on the 1^st of November 2021 to regulate Chinese medicine services in New Zealand. Members were appointed by the Minister of Health in May 2022 and first met in July 2022.

The Council’s role is to protect the health and safety of members of the public by providing for mechanisms to ensure that Chinese medicine practitioners are competent and fit to practise their profession.

The Council is responsible for:

• setting standards for entry to the Register
• registering Chinese medicine practitioners
• setting standards of clinical and cultural competence, and ethical conduct to be met by all Chinese medicine practitioners
• recertifying all practising Chinese medicine practitioners each year
• reviewing and remediating the competence of Chinese medicine practitioners
• investigating the conduct or health of Chinese medicine practitioners where there are concerns about their performance and taking appropriate action.

As a part of those functions and responsibilities, the Council:

• sets accreditation standards and competencies for Chinese medicine
• monitors and accredits the Chinese medicine programmes to ensure the quality of education and training is appropriate
• sets scopes of practice within which Chinese medicine practitioners may practise
• prescribes qualifications for each scope of practice
• maintains a public register of all registered Chinese medicine practitioners, including those who are not currently practising
• issues annual practising certificates to Chinese medicine practitioners who have maintained their competence and fitness to practise, to continue practising their profession
• develops and maintains minimum standards through practice standards that all Chinese medicine practitioners must comply with
• requires registered Chinse medicine practitioners to undertake continuing professional development education
• manages Chinese medicine practitioners suffering from health issues affecting their practice
• places conditions on, or restricts a Chinese medicine practitioner’s scope of practice, or suspends their practising certificate, if that is appropriate to protect the health and safety of the public.

The Council’s role is to protect the health and safety of patients and the public, not to protect the interests of Chinese medicine practitioners.  The Council has legal powers that permit it to enforce the standards the public have a right to expect of Chinese medicine practitioners in New Zealand, and it is the Council’s goal, to administer those powers, consistently, fairly, and effectively.

Council’s statutory functions are set out in section 118 of the Act