Move To Tie Nurse Practitioners To Doctors Is Not 'collaboration'

Move to Tie Nurse Practitioners to Doctors is Not 'Collaboration'

7 November 2009

RCNA emphatically opposes this week's announcement from Minister Roxon's office that nurse practitioners will remain beholden to doctors if they wish to work to the extent of their scope of practice.

Legislation tabled in parliament earlier this year sought to give clients of nurse practitioners and eligible midwives access to rebates the Medical Benefits Schedule (MBS) and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). This week, the government announced a series of amendments that would require nurse practitioners and midwives to be tied to a doctor in order for their clients to access these rebates.

"The public will ultimately lose out if this arrangement is to go ahead. The original legislation would have opened up greater access to health care services for people in the community, as well as providing more choice for people seeking care," said RCNA Acting Chief Executive Officer, Kathleen McLaughlin FRCNA.

"These changes will ensure that lack of access to timely and affordable care remains an ongoing issue for many people around Australia."

People in rural and remote areas would be particularly affected if these new measure were to be implemented, as would Indigenous communities and other vulnerable community groups.

"The people in our community with the greatest need will be the people who are most negatively affected by these changes," Ms McLaughlin said.

"And, if nurse practitioners are bound to doctors, what happens to communities in places where doctors are scarce or where there are no doctors at all?"

Earlier this year, nursing groups applauded the government's plan to make greater use of the health care workforce as part of sweeping reforms to the health care system. RCNA continues to support a collaborative model of care, but believes that it should not be designed to make one profession is dependent on another.

"The government is responding to pressure from the doctors' lobby, who don't want to relinquish what is essentially a monopoly on the patient dollar," Ms McLaughlin said.

"This is an absolute step backwards, not just for nurses but for the community out there who would benefit from the services that nurse practitioners can provide."

Media contact
Claire Thompson, Communications Manager
Royal College of Nursing, Australia
Ph 0409 129 634

SOURCE: Royal College of Nursing, Australia