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Francesca Rudkin: Government's new health moves are long overdue · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: I like how the government's recent moves are trying to
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  Speaker 1: create a more integrated and responsive health system. Last week
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  Speaker 1: they moved on the pharmacists and during the weekend it
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  Speaker 1: was with the paramedics. It's about making the most of
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  Speaker 1: the workforce we already have by extending what they can do,
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  Speaker 1: with the aim being to reduce treatment delays, improve patient
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  Speaker 1: experiences and take the pressure off our stretched primary health
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  Speaker 1: care providers. Last Tuesday, changes to the services pharmacists can
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  Speaker 1: provide kicked in. Instead of waiting for a GP appointment,
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  Speaker 1: paying for a GP appointment, or paying over the counter
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  Speaker 1: prices for treatments, you can head to your local chemistry.
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  Speaker 1: Your pharmacist is now fully funded to provide a consultation
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  Speaker 1: and supply a funded treatment at a low cost. Benefits
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  Speaker 1: obvious patients can get more affordable care quickly and closer
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  Speaker 1: to home, while taking pressure off gps and emergency departments.
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  Speaker 1: Over the weekend, the Health Minister Simeon Brown announced that
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  Speaker 1: paramedics will soon be able to prescribe medicines that fall
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  Speaker 1: within their scope of practice. At the moment, paramedics can
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  Speaker 1: administer medicines but can't prescribe them. Once again, the idea
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  Speaker 1: is to reduce pressure on the emergency departments by being
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  Speaker 1: able to help patients receive treatment in their homes and communities.
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  Speaker 1: The Health minister said giving paramedics the ability to prescribe
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  Speaker 1: medicines will enable them to provide more complete care when
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  Speaker 1: it's clinically appropriate, rather than transferring patients elsewhere, such as
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  Speaker 1: an emergency department, solely to obtain a prescription. So this
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  Speaker 1: will be beneficial where it makes sense for people to
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  Speaker 1: be assessed, treated and prescribed at home, such as for
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  Speaker 1: the elderly, those impalliative care, and those living in rural
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  Speaker 1: and remote areas. So John says it supports paramedic prescribing
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  Speaker 1: as a positive step in the evolution of the paramedic
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  Speaker 1: profession and ambulance care. John Moores, who is the St
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  Speaker 1: John Deputy Chief Executive, he said, what we're all thinking right,
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  Speaker 1: He said, it is important that robust clinical governance, training,
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  Speaker 1: prescribing frameworks and patient safeguards are in place to ensure
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  Speaker 1: prescribing is funded appropriately and safely. He said it is
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  Speaker 1: important that the necessary funding and support mechanisms are in
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  Speaker 1: place to ensure ambulance services can continue to meet their
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  Speaker 1: existing commitments. While taking on these expanding responsibilities, and the
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  Speaker 1: Health Minister confirmed with me yesterday on the Sunday Session
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  Speaker 1: that the government would continue to invest in paramedics and funding.
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  Speaker 1: This would be subject to negotiations between Health New Zealand
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  Speaker 1: and our ambulance providers. According to Brown, it may take
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  Speaker 1: a year or two to get this approved and up
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  Speaker 1: and running. Look, this isn't transformational change of the health sector.
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  Speaker 1: You could perhaps call it tinkering around the edges, but
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  Speaker 1: small changes can still be worthwhile change. Talk to clinicians
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  Speaker 1: and they will often tell you fixing problems is not
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  Speaker 1: always about needing more money, but about creating better systems
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  Speaker 1: and using money more wisely. So these are small changes,
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  Speaker 1: but they will make life easier for patients. Something tells
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  Speaker 1: me that once they're safely implemented, we will wonder why
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  Speaker 1: we didn't do this earlier. For more from Early Edition
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  Speaker 1: with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks it be
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  Speaker 1: from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast iHeart Radio