UPDATE - AT Scope of Practice review paused
Following our consultation to revise the Scope of Practice for the anaesthetic technician profession, and the outcome published on 13 February, a couple of things have happened:
- An expert advisory group (EAG) of anaesthetic technicians from across the profession and a lay person has been appointed to advise on completing this project.
- The project has been paused while we review the proposed name change from Anaesthetic Technician SOP to Perioperative Practice SOP. While going through the process of publishing the gazette notice, the Ministry of Health (as part of the normal process of checking these things) highlighted a potential issue with the way the gazette notice was framed.
We’re now considering this before finalising details. This will cause a delay, but in the meantime other aspects of the project will carry on. Everything else that has been done, discussed, and achieved to date remains the same while we look into this part of the review.
The purpose of regularly reviewing the scope of practice remains the same – to ensure it remains fit for purpose, and that practitioners are equipped to respond to an ever-changing healthcare practice environment.
As a result of having to change our approach and renaming the scope of practice, the previous gazette notice entitled Scope of Practice and Prescribed Qualifications for the Practice of Perioperative Practice in Aotearoa ǀ New Zealand (Notice no. 2024-s1776) has been removed.
This has been replaced with the original Anaesthetic Technician Scope of Practice notice per the corrigendum published here.
You can be assured that while this will cause a delay in some aspects of the project, the project still goes on.
If you have any questions about what this means, please view the FAQs below.
Frequently Asked Questions
We received some feedback that means changing the name from Anaesthetic Technician to Perioperative Practice would require a specific order to be made under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003. This means we’re having to change our approach to finalising the consultation outcomes. This will cause a delay but the work that has been done so far is still valid and important.
While going through the process of publishing the gazette notice, the Ministry of Health (as part of the normal process of checking these things) highlighted a potential issue with the way the gazette notice was framed. We’re now considering this before finalising details. This will cause a delay, but in the meantime other aspects of the project will carry on.
There is no change you still can work as you have done previously.
Nothing changes - you will still apply for registration and a practising certificate as normal. You will be registered in the anaesthetic technician scope of practice. And New Zealand perioperative practice graduates will be registered under point 2 of the gazette – substantially equivalent qualification.
There will be a delay but be assured the project is continuing. The checks and balances we use to manage these processes has highlighted a potential issue with how we talk about the profession and define the scope of practice.
We are now taking the time to address this before proceeding and we’ll provide more information about that in due course.
We’re replacing the current notice (2024) with a corrigendum (Notice of Scope of Practice and Prescribed Qualifications for the Practice of Perioperative Practice in Aotearoa ǀ New Zealand) which we have published on the website under Resources/Gazette Notices.
Yes.
No, that was a requirement for people who had completed the diploma. There are no further graduates from that qualification.
The Council is proposing that graduates from the New Zealand programme will undergo a period of supervision. However, what that supervision looks like is still being considered.
Yes, but what that supervision needs to be is still under consideration.
Your title remains as Anaesthetic Technician.
Until we resolve the question of whether the profession continues to be called Anaesthetic Technician or can be called ‘Perioperative Practice’, we’re advising everyone to continue using the original/current name: Anaesthetic Practice – as stated in the current/existing gazette notice Extract from NZ Gazette, 8 July 1999, No (mscouncil.org.nz)