Search
741 results matching “how do professionals re”
-
Letter from Mr Andrew Connolly to the Resident Doctors Association (RDA) and the 20 District Health Boards regarding continued industrial action.
-
To practise as a doctor or physician associate in Aotearoa New Zealand you must be registered and have a practising certificate. There are various registration pathways, depending on your qualifications, training, experience, and whether you intend to work in Aotearoa New Zealand permanently or just for a short time for a specific purpose.
-
We serve Aotearoa New Zealand by protecting the health and safety of the public. We do this by setting and promoting standards for doctors and physician associates.
-
A Professional Conduct Committee (PCC) is an investigatory body appointed by the Council. Its purpose is to investigate matters and concerns referred to it by the Council about a registered doctor. Although a PCC is appointed by the Council, it is separate from the Council, and regulates its own procedures.
-
To ensure that you are continuing to maintain your competence to practise medicine, you must meet recertification programme requirements set by Council, including any minimum continuing professional development (CPD) requirements.
-
To ensure that you are continuing to maintain your competence to practise medicine, you must meet recertification programme requirements set by Council, including any minimum continuing professional development (CPD) requirements.
-
This page contains forms relating to recertification programmes requirements and professional development.
-
Certificates of professional status (COPS) are documents used by professional regulators to share information about whether a health practitioner is in good standing. Doctors or physician associates applying for registration, restoration or returning from practising outside New Zealand need to provide us with certificates of professional status.
-
We regulate doctors in New Zealand, with other medical professions having their own regulatory authority. There are 18 health professional regulation bodies established under the HPCAA including ourselves.
-
Te Kaunihera Rata o Aotearoa | Medical Council of New Zealand set these Professional Standards for Physician Associates 2026 (the standards) under section 118(1)(i) of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003. The standards will come into force on 1 October 2026.
-
This sheet provides information on how Professional Conduct Committees (PCCs) request information, what powers they must obtain information, what they do with information they receive, and answers some frequently asked questions.
-
Follow through a series of videos and let us guide you through our process.
-
Vaccination is a crucial part of the New Zealand public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Health practitioners can help to protect themselves, their patients, and the wider community by getting their COVID-19 vaccination.
-
This pamphlet explains the role of a Professional Conduct Committee (PCC) and what to expect if you are referred to a PCC.
-
This pamphlet explains the role of a Professional Conduct Committee (PCC) and what to expect if your notification about a doctor is referred to a PCC.
-
If you're not working away from New Zealand but are just taking a break from medical practice, this page outlines what you need to do.
-
If you're applying for registration in the vocational scope and did your postgraduate training outside of New Zealand and Australia, this policy outlines the rules that will apply when we consider your application.
-
This statement acknowledges that health inequities and inequalities continue to exist for Māori, and that there are disparities in the delivery of health care to Māori. It encourages all health organisations to examine their partnership with Māori through genuine engagement, representation and participation.
-
Our principal function is to protect you by ensuring that doctors and physician associates are competent and fit to practise. We do this by setting standards of clinical and cultural competence and ethical conduct.
-
If you, as an international medical graduate (IMG), apply for vocational registration and your application is successful, you will have to complete a provisional vocational registration period. You'll work under supervision for this period, during which we make sure you're competent to practise independently in your chosen field of medicine.
-
Te Kaunihera Rata o Aotearoa | Medical Council of New Zealand is inviting feedback on proposals for how PAs should be regulated in Aotearoa New Zealand.
-
Request for re-evaluation of application for registration within a vocational scope of practice
-
Physician associates are trained health professionals who work under the supervision of adoctor to provide healthcare to patients.
-
The Council offers two clinical supervision courses for clinical supervisors and prevocational educational supervisors. The courses supplement training that supervisors receive from training providers and medical colleges. Courses are available to all supervisors through the ePort platform.
-
At its first meeting for 2024, Te Kaunihera Rata o Aotearoa | The Medical Council of New Zealand elected Dr Rachelle Love as its new Chair and re-elected Mr Simon Watt as Deputy Chair.
-
Every doctor in New Zealand must be registered to practise medicine. If you are not eligible for registration under any other pathway, you must sit and pass the NZREX Clinical, our registration examination.
-
Maintaining clinical records is part of good medical practice. Clinical notes are an important tool for managing the patient's care, and communicating with other doctors and health professionals. This statement guides doctors on what information they should record, and for how long they should retain patients' records.
-
All physician associates applying for registration in New Zealand must have key documents verified from their primary source. Council uses the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates’ (ECFMG) Credential Verification for Health Professionals (CVHP) service to do this.
-
Find out how to keep us up to date with changes to your information including your name, employment, and addresses.
-
Te Kaunihera Rata o Aotearoa | The Medical Council of New Zealand (Council) recently held an election to select four medical practitioner nominees and can now announce the results of this election.
-
This page outlines the registration process for physician associates including information on what you need to provide, what you can expect and how long it will take.
-
The Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal (The Tribunal) has asked us to publish a summary of its recent decisions. You can access the full decision on their website at the links provided.
-
How you apply for a practising certificate will depend on whether or not you are already registered in New Zealand, if you have worked in New Zealand before, and how long it has been since you last practised. If you already hold a practising certificate, please see our page on renewing your practising certificate instead.
-
This page outlines how the process of renewing your practising certificate works and what to do if your certificate is about to expire and you haven't heard from us.
-
The principal function of the Medical Council of New Zealand is to protect the health and safety of the public by ensuring that doctors and physician associates are competent and fit to practise. We do this by setting standards of clinical and cultural competence and ethical conduct.
-
List of our fees effective from 1 July 2026
-
If you have concerns about a registered doctor or a physician associate, you can refer the matter to the Council.
-
Doctors and physician associates get sick too, and when they do it's important that their illness doesn't interfere with their ability to practise safely. A doctor or physician associate must always be able to practise without putting patients or the public at risk.
-
From today, 1 October 2026 physician associates are a regulated health profession in Aotearoa New Zealand.
-
We are seeking your feedback on the draft Professional standards for PAs. These draft standards propose the principles and values of good PA practice and the professional standards expected of PAs working in Aotearoa New Zealand.
-
You can apply to access the full medical register, but before you apply make sure you know what information the register holds. Whether your application is approved or not depends on what you want to do with the information.
-
In some circumstances you can be restored to the medical register if your registration has been cancelled. This page outlines how to apply to be restored to the register.
-
Our registration application forms include a range of 'fitness for registration' questions. This page will help guide you should you need to make a declaration about any issues that might affect your fitness for registration.
-
You can apply for registration through this pathway if you hold a qualification accredited for licensure in the United States of America for registration as a physician associate.
-
You can apply for registration through this pathway if you hold a qualification accredited for licensure in Canada for registration as a physician associate.
-
If a doctor or physician associate has an issue with their own health, wherever possible we try to help them to remain in practice while it is being resolved. That said, our primary objective is to protect the health and safety of the public - which may mean that the doctor or physician associate will be unable to practise safely, or will be limited in what they can do, until they are well enough to fully resume practice.
-
This area of our site contains detailed information about the medical workforce in Aotearoa New Zealand.
-
We sometimes require that a doctor has a chaperone present to observe their consultations with patients. We do this to mitigate risk to the patient where there are concerns that the doctor poses a risk of harm or serious risk of harm to the public. This is different from when a chaperone is present as a matter of good medical practice.
-
Guide on how to use myMCNZ including how to access it, how to update your details, how to request a COPS and how to renew your practising certificate.
-
This dashboard page contains information around how long doctors remain in New Zealand after their initial registration.
-
As a doctor, you have an obligation to be respectful and professional as your behaviour may affect how a health team functions, how care is delivered to patients, and the public’s trust and confidence in the medical profession. If you have concerns about the conduct, competence or safety of a doctor’s practice, you should notify the Medical Council.
-
Once a doctor successfully completes prevocational medical training and has received registration within a general scope of practice, a doctor is then eligible to enrol in a vocational medical training programme. Doctors undertaking this training are referred to as trainee doctors, and are usually employed as registrars.
-
This page contains important information on approved qualifications, the information to include with your application, and other things that may affect your application for registration in a vocational scope.
-
We sometimes require that a doctor has a chaperone present to observe their consultations with patients. We do this to mitigate risk to the patient where there are concerns that the doctor poses a risk of harm or serious risk of harm to the public. This is different from when a chaperone is present as a matter of good medical practice.
-
This guide for supervisors of IMGs outlines how to access supervision reports through Council's myMCNZ portal, as well as how to complete and submit them.
-
A recent change to the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 sets a new requirement on all health profession regulators, including the Medical Council. We are now required to publish a policy setting out on when we might make public in some way, information about an order or direction made by us about a doctor.
-
Doctor-patient relationships can come to an end for a variety of reasons, commonly when the patient moves to another area or chooses to see another doctor, but also when the relationship breaks down and either the doctor or patient decides to discontinue the professional relationship. We outline in this statement the process for discontinuing patient care, and the need to do so in a fair and professional manner.
-
In late 2009 we asked the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE) to undertake a full review of how we were performing. This is their report on how we did.
-
All international medical graduates (IMGs) registered in a provisional general, provisional vocational and special purpose scope of practice must be supervised. This is to support their practice while they become familiar with the New Zealand health system and the expected standard of medical practice.
-
You can apply for registration through this pathway if you hold a qualification approved by the General Medical Council (GMC) for registration as a physician associate in the United Kingdom.
-
Regardless of your scope of practice, the basic process for registration as a doctor or physician associate in New Zealand is as outlined here.
-
This dashboard page breaks down new doctors by entry pathway (how they qualified for registration in New Zealand) by ethnicity, gender, age group, and the country of their primary medical qualification.
-
We have approximately 95 staff, including our Chief Executive and senior managers whose activities are overseen by a Council of 12 people who are a mix of doctors and laypeople. Our Chair is Dr Kenneth (Ken) Clark. Joan Simeon is our Manukura (Chief Executive) Officer.
-
If you have concerns about the care you received, or about a doctor or physician associate's behaviour or professionalism, you can notify either the Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC) or the Medical Council of New Zealand (Council). We work closely together, but our roles are different.
-
This pathway is for physician associates who have experience practising clinically in New Zealand.
-
You can use this form to ask us a question or raise concerns about a health practitioner (doctor or physician associate).
-
This statement outlines how we manage the personal information we collect.
-
Graduates of Aotearoa New Zealand and Australian accredited medical schools and doctors who have sat and passed an approved medical registration examination, including the New Zealand Registration Examination (NZREX Clinical) complete prevocational medical training.
-
Draft document for consultation. In this document we advise doctors on how they can support the achievement of best health outcomes for Māori. We also provide guidance for healthcare organisations on how to support Māori health equity.
-
This page covers where you can get advice and support if you're thinking about making a notification.
-
Council is reviewing the core ethical standards it sets for the profession, ensuring the standards reflect both patient expectations and the realities of clinical practice. As part of this work, we have sought feedback from patients and doctors and have now released two reports that reflect their views.
-
This quick guide for stakeholders covers how to make an online claim through myMCNZ.
-
This page contains information on how to use myMCNZ, our web based portal for doctors.
-
We want to make sure the information that we provide on our website about making a notification is clear and easy to use. If you have recently looked at our website to find out how to raise a concern about a doctor, we welcome your feedback.
-
Internet, email, and other forms of electronic communication are ways in which doctors communicate with patients and other health professionals, find information, and participate in informed discussion. This statement guides doctors on the use of email and other forms of social media.
-
This document is a guide for prevocational educational supervisors on how to support their interns to complete the MSF process and provides information on how to interpret the collated report before discussing the results with their interns.
-
The special purpose teleradiology scope of practice enables doctors without the recognised New Zealand or Australasian qualification to provide teleradiology services for patients in New Zealand.
-
The Medical Council of New Zealand will protect and safeguard personal information and treat it with the utmost care, respect and discretion. This includes all personal information collected online.This privacy notice applies to personal information that we collect through this website: www.mcnz.org.nz
-
Oral and maxillofacial surgery involves the diagnosis and treatment (operative and non-operative) of patients with diseases, injuries and defects of the mouth, jaws and associated structures. This includes oral and maxillofacial pathology, trauma, dentoalveolar surgery, orthognathic and relevant reconstructive surgery, and facial pain.
-
Graduates of Aotearoa New Zealand and Australian accredited medical schools and doctors who have sat and passed an approved medical registration examination, including the New Zealand Registration Examination (NZREX Clinical) complete prevocational medical training.
-
An audit of medical practice is a systematic, critical analysis of the quality of a doctor’s own practice, the results of which are used to improve clinical care and/or health outcomes, or to confirm that current management is consistent with the current available evidence or accepted consensus guidelines.
-
Collegial relationships are a component of recertification for general registrants, doctors working outside of their vocational scope of practice, and in select cases doctors limited to non-clinical practice.
-
If you are planning on leaving New Zealand to practise in another country, its medical regulator may ask you for a certificate of professional status (COPS) from us. Your registration is not affected by your decision to practise overseas but you must ensure that we hold current contact details for you.
-
Ophthalmology involves the diagnosis and management of patients with abnormal conditions affecting the eye and its appendages, including prevention of blindness, promotion of eye health and rehabilitation of patients with visual disability.
-
This guidance explains what doctors should consider when using artificial intelligence (AI) in patient care. Because AI is increasingly being used in medical practice, it is essential that doctors do so ethically and responsibly, to ensure patient safety and the privacy of health information.
-
To practise in New Zealand, you must first gain registration from us. This ensures you are competent and fit to practise.
-
Medical Council Chair Dr Rachelle Love responds to the final report from the Abuse in State Care Royal Commission Inquiry.
-
Professional standards for physician associates 2026
-
Anaesthesia is the provision of anaesthetics, peri-operative care, intensive care and pain management to patients and can include the provision of resuscitation, retrieval/transportation (inter and intra hospital) and hyperbaric medicine to patients.
-
General practice is an academic and scientific discipline with its own educational content, research, evidence base and clinical activity, and a clinical speciality orientated to primary care. It is personal, family, and community-orientated comprehensive primary care that includes diagnosis, continues over time and is anticipatory as well as responsive.
-
Emergency medicine is a field of practice based on knowledge and skills required for the prevention, diagnosis and management of acute and urgent aspects of illness and injury affecting patients of all age groups with a full spectrum of undifferentiated physical and behavioural disorders.
-
Internal medicine involves the diagnosis and management of patients with complex medical problems which may include internal medicine, cardiology, clinical immunology, clinical pharmacology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, geriatric medicine, haematology, infectious diseases, medical oncology, nephrology, neurology, nuclear medicine, palliative medicine, respiratory medicine and rheumatology.
-
Sport and exercise medicine is the medical care of the exercising individual, including the assessment and management of patients with musculoskeletal injuries and medical problems arising from sporting activity. Sport and exercise physicians possess expertise in general medicine, orthopaedics and rehabilitation, plus allied sport sciences including nutrition, biomechanics, exercise physiology and sports psychology.
-
This is an updated draft version of the statement which we're consulting on. Please see the consultation section of our website for more information including how to provide feedback.
-
Dermatology is the study, research and diagnosis of disorders, diseases, cancers, cosmetic, ageing and physiological conditions of the skin, fat, hair, nails and oral and genital membranes.
-
Occupational medicine involves the study and practice of medicine related to the effects of work on health and health on work. It has clinical, preventive and population based aspects.
-
Paediatrics involves the assessment, diagnosis and management of infants, children and young people with disturbances of health, growth, behaviour and/or development. It also addresses the health status of this group through population assessments, intervention, education and research.
-
Pathology involves the assessment and diagnosis of patients with diseases. Includes anatomical pathology (including histopathology), chemical pathology, forensic pathology, general pathology (a mix of anatomical and clinical pathology), genetic pathology, haematology, immunopathology, and microbiology (including virology).
-
The Medical Council has today launched Torohia – Medical Training Survey for New Zealand, a new survey designed with the profession, for the profession, to better understand doctors’ experience of postgraduate training.
-
New Zealand’s medical workforce has grown to 21,097 practising doctors, with the latest Medical Council workforce report also showing changes in who makes up the profession, where doctors are working and how long they stay in New Zealand.
-
The professional services a doctor can perform in New Zealand are defined by the scope of practice for which they are registered.
-
Rural hospital medicine is determined by its social context, the rural environment, the demands of which include professional and geographic isolation, limited resources and special cultural and sociological factors. It is invariable practised at a distance from comprehensive specialist medical and surgical services and investigations.
-
This handbook is intended as a guide for doctors undergoing performance assessments and aims to provide you with an understanding of how performance assessments work,
and to ensure that there are no surprises for you throughout the assessment process -
Neurosurgery is the diagnosis and treatment (operative and non operative) of patients with disorders of the central, peripheral and autonomic nervous system including their supportive structures and blood supply. This includes the skull, brain, meninges, spinal cord, spine and pituitary gland. It also includes the management of traumatic, neoplastic, infective, congenital and degenerative conditions of these structures and surgical pain management.
-
Orthopaedic surgery is the diagnosis and treatment (operative and non operative) of patients with disorders of the musculoskeletal system (bones, joints, ligaments, tendon and peripheral nerves). It includes the management of trauma to the musculoskeletal system and the management of congenital and acquired disorders.
-
Pain medicine is the biopsychosocial assessment and management of persons with complex pain, especially when an underlying condition is not directly treatable. The scope of pain medicine supplements that of other medical disciplines, and utilises interdisciplinary skills to promote improved quality-of-life through improved physical, psychological and social function.
-
Sexual health medicine is concerned with sexual relations, including freedom from sexually transmissible infections (STIs), unplanned pregnancy, coercion and physical and psychological sexual discomfort. Its practice encompasses a wide range of factors that contribute to STIs, sexual assault, sexual dysfunction and fertility.
-
We may sometimes use terms you won't be familiar with. Find out here what they mean.
-
This guide outlines why doctors may have conditions on their practice, how to find out if a doctor has conditions, and what some of the different types of conditions mean for you as a patient.