This Labour-led Government is working to ensure we have a responsive and equitable health system.

Extending prescribing rights to nurse practitioners will bring us closer to that goal by ensuring consistency between professions, with assured competency. New Zealanders can also be assured that they are accessing high-quality health services. Like most rich countries, New Zealand is facing a future of low fertility and large populations of elderly people. This will increase the shift towards chronic and degenerative diseases with high care demands.

In 2004, there were only 490,000 people aged 65 years and above. Twenty years from now, their ranks will swell to over a million or over a quarter of the population.

The ethnic contours of our population will also continue to change. The number of Asians are projected to rise by 145 per cent by 2026, Pacific people by 59 per cent, Maori by 29 per cent and Europeans by only five per cent.

Given the potential strains on our ability to deliver a comprehensive health service in the future and the possible increase in demand for services, we need to develop and harness the skills of all health professionals.

By being able to prescribe certain prescription medicines within their area of practice, nurse practitioners ensure that patients have access to the most appropriate and timely treatment.

We also hope that extending prescribing rights to nurse practitioners will foster increased collaboration between nurse practitioners and medical practitioners. We need to have more of this multi-disciplinary teamwork – of health professionals working as a team – to tackle future challenges. That is why we are also looking at the proposal to extend prescribing rights to nurse specialists.

There are presently 26 nurse practitioners in New Zealand, and only nine are authorised to prescribe. We recognise that a long and tough process precedes registration as a nurse practitioner. By extending prescribing rights to nurse specialists, of whom there are hundreds, we would be encouraging more flexible and efficient ways of delivering health services and the need for multiple referrals between health practitioners would be reduced.

It will also help reduce secondary illnesses, complications and hospital admissions. It will result in cheaper primary health care for patients who currently need to be referred to a medical practitioner for a prescription, as they need to see only one health practitioner.

It will also be much simpler and cheaper for the patient and provide for a far better care experience since he can receive all his treatment, including the prescription, from a nurse practitioner or a nurse specialist.

The Ministry of Health, together with the Nursing Council and the Pharmaceutical Management Agency, is currently exploring the proposal to further amend regulations on prescribing. The Ministry and Pharmac are also reviewing the requirements for the issue and use of standing orders, which are being used effectively by nurses to supply and administer specified prescription medicines.

The coming months are likely to usher in lively debates on these proposed initiatives, and I fervently hope you will participate in them.

I am conscious of the challenges that lie ahead. But, with your support, we shall persevere. We shall succeed. On that note, I now declare this conference open! Thank you and good day to you all!