Information about making declarations of mental or physical conditions

How we define the 'ability to perform the functions required to practise medicine'

Whether a doctor is in good health or has a health problem, a practising doctor must always be able to:

• make safe judgements
• demonstrate the level of skill and knowledge required for safe practice
• behave appropriately
• not risk infecting patients
• not act in ways that adversely impact on patient safety.

How do you decide whether current or previous health conditions need to be declared?

We do not usually need information about:

• short-lived conditions which respond quickly to rest or treatment, and from which a full recovery is made
• medical problems that don’t affect your ability to practise.

You will need to declare the following:

• substance use problems (alcohol or drugs)
• any impairment that has occurred because of substance use
• mental health conditions
• infection with a transmissible disease
• medical conditions affecting motor skills, cognition, or that limit your capacity to practise
• brain injury.

The above list is not exhaustive. You also you need to declare if:

• you have a relapsing condition, even if it has been stable for some time
• you have a condition you would need to disclose in an occupational health declaration
• your workplace needs to know about a health condition and its potential to impact on your practice, if for example, certain supports are needed, or you have a condition such as type 1 diabetes that may impact on your practice
• you have a newly diagnosed condition which you are still learning to integrate into your everyday life and practice.

Your scope of practice may be a relevant factor – a movement disorder may not affect your practice if you’re a psychiatrist, but it may affect it if you’re a surgeon or proceduralist.

What happens to information you declare?

This comes straight to the Health Team. While other Council staff may be able to see that your registration application is ‘on hold’ to the Health Team, they have no other information as it is not necessary to their work.

All health declarations are reviewed by a senior and experienced Health Case Manager. A decision is then made on whether the condition is affecting, or could affect, your practice in a way that could put patients at risk. If more information is needed to make that decision, we may ask for:

• the actual diagnosis you have been given, with a brief history
• a brief outline of treatment and its efficacy, and relevant management, including what is in place to assist recovery, or to manage any chronic, progressive, or relapsing and remitting conditions
• how the condition has impacted on your practice. If there are potential future impacts, any plans to manage these would be relevant
• any potential risk to patients
• any professional advice you have had on your fitness to practise.

The Health Case Manager may also:

• discuss the information with Council’s Health Manager and its Registrar
• decide that the application and the information provided will be referred to Council’s Health Committee. One of the Committee’s roles is to advise Council on an applicant’s fitness to practise. More information about the Health Committee is here.

Once a decision is made, the registration coordinator who is processing your application will pass the decision on to you.

Will declarations extend the application process?

If we have to get more information, it will extend the time taken to process your application. If all the information is available, any delay will be likely be minimal.

Who else at Council sees the information you provide?

We provide a summary report of all health declarations, which includes each doctor’s name, the diagnosis given, and action taken, to our Health Committee.

Why does the Council collect and hold personal health information about doctors?

We need to know if a doctor has a condition (mental or physical) that affects, or could affect, their practice, and we need to know to what extent, if any, this impacts on their ability to practise. We only ask for information necessary to fulfil our statutory purpose.

We respect doctors’ rights as they relate to their personal health information. The Council follows the information privacy principles set down under New Zealand legislation such as the Health Information Privacy Code 2020 and the Privacy Act 2020.

• The Privacy Act 2020

  The Privacy Act controls how 'agencies' collect, use, disclose, store and give access to 'personal information'. The privacy Codes of Practice do the same, but they apply to specific areas - particularly health, telecommunications and credit reporting.