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

History of health regulation in NZ

Before 2003, western medical doctors were the only health professionals in New Zealand regulated by the government and registered to practice by a governing body. The Medical Council of New Zealand had oversight of public safety through regulations governing the competence of doctors, their fitness to practice, policy and professional standards, registration, discipline, educational requirements, and provider accreditation.

In 2001 the Labour-led coalition government was committed to health system reform and created radical institutional change, under the Primary Health Care Strategy. These changes included:

• 2001, the creation of 21 District Health Bboards (DHBs)

   

• 2002, the establishment of Primary Health Organisations (PHOs), funded by the Ministry of Health through the DHBs, to act as finance brokers between general practice and district health needs

   

• September 2003, the replacement of the Medical Practitioners Act (1849 and subsequent amendments to 1995), with the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act (HPCA Act)

   

• The HPCA Act builds on the framework created by earlier legislation. All the major concepts of the Medical Practitioners Act 1995 were carried forward into the HPCA Act, adjusted where necessary to generic terms to provide a framework that can apply to all health practitioners, not just doctors

   

• Under the HPCA Act, responsible authorities (RAs) were created to regulate a broad range of health professionals, and to “protect the health and safety of members of the public by providing for mechanisms to ensure that health professionals are competent and fit to practice their profession” (section3, (1)).

Purpose of the Act: Part 1, section 3

The purpose of the HPCA Act and subsequent amendments, is to protect the health and safety of the public, and RAs fulfil that purpose by registering health practitioners that are fully competent in the practice of their profession, and also fit to practice.

Every health practitioner who practises in a regulated profession in New Zealand must be registered with the relevant responsible authority and hold an Annual Practising Certificate (APC) issued by that authority (section 26). Additionally, the Act specifically bars any individual from claiming to be a practitioner of a regulated profession, or in any way imply that they practise or are willing to practise a regulated profession, unless they are appropriately qualified, registered with the relevant authority, and hold an APC.

The Act incorporates the basic principles of ongoing competence and the separation of the registration process from the disciplinary process (Part 4, Complaints and discipline).

Chinese medicine (CM) is a regulated profession, under the HPCA Act, and CM practitioners must therefore be registered with the Chinese Medicine Council of New Zealand (CMCNZ).

Responsible authority (RA)

The CMCNZ is a responsible authority, which is a ‘body corporate’ legislated in the HPCA Act 2003.

There are currently 18 health professions regulated under the 2003 legislation and each profession has its own autonomous RA.

The CMCNZ, as a RA, is not a professional body nor is it an Incorporated Society. It does not work in the interests of practitioners.  Instead, it is a governance institution that is responsible for governing the CM profession in New Zealand, and setting policy and standards it is not required to adopt any of the advice obtained through public and professional submissions. In this way the Council maintains its independence from the CM profession and its integrity to protect the public by ensuring the competency and fitness to practice of all its registrants. 

Section 118 of the HPCA Act details the 'Functions of authorities'.

A summary of the key functions/responsibilities is detailed above.

Important key protections are in place, with provisions to ensure that:

• only health practitioners who are registered under the Act are able to use the titles protected by the Act or claim to be practising a profession that is regulated by the Act
• registered health practitioners are not permitted to practise outside their scopes of practice
• responsible authorities are required to certify that a practitioner is competent to practise in their scope of practice when they issue an annual practising certificate
• certain activities are restricted and can only be performed by registered health professionals

Administration of the Act

The Ministry of Health administers the Act. This includes managing the consultation processes to enable the Minister to appoint the members of the authorities.

While the Ministry has certain functions under the Act, the primary responsibility and accountability for the CM profession intentionally falls on the CMCNZ. The Act is very much about handing responsibility and legislative governance tools to the CMCNZ, for ensuring that CM practitioners are, and remain, competent and safe to practise.

The Act contains few but important powers for the Minister. These powers reflect the primary purpose of the Act to protect the public and the Minister's obligations to the public. In return for handing responsibility for the CM profession to the CMCNZ (regarding the clinical decisions that relate to fitness for registration and competence to practise), there are checks and balances in the Act to ensure that responsible authorities are held accountable for complying with the provisions of the Act, through the Minister to Parliament.

The Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Amendment Act (2018) provides for five-yearly reviews of responsible authorities to ensure they are carrying out their functions effectively and efficiently.

Policy reviews of the HPCA Act were completed in 2009 and again in 2012.

Proposals resulting from the two reviews were considered by Cabinet in 2015 and an amendment bill was drafted. This Bill was introduced to Parliament on 15^th February 2018 and was considered by the Health Select Committee.

The Bill was passed on 9^th April 2019.

The HPCA is now under its third review in 2024.