{"id":463308,"date":"2026-06-06T02:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T02:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/463308\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T02:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T02:00:14","slug":"paramedics-to-be-given-authority-to-prescribe-medicines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/463308\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramedics to be given authority to prescribe medicines"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">Included on the list will be medicines for common infections or minor conditions &#8211; such as respiratory or ear infections &#8211; and routine or repeat medications for common conditions such as asthma inhalers, diabetes medications and pain relief.<\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">The list may also include medicines that are controlled drugs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">Brown said giving paramedics the ability to prescribe medicines will allow them to provide more complete care when it is clinically appropriate, rather than transferring patients to a hospital emergency department, for example, just to get a prescription.<\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThis will be particularly beneficial for people living in rural and remote areas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">The minister said the change is part of the Government\u2019s broader focus on making better use of the country\u2019s skilled health workforce to improve access to healthcare.<\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThese changes will help reduce pressure on emergency departments and hospitals, support more care in the community and ensure patients receive the treatment they need sooner,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe are focused on building the future of our healthcare system and enabling paramedics to prescribe medicines is an important part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"DjAaGJVL\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Included on the list will be medicines for common infections or minor conditions &#8211; such as respiratory or&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16891,1124,5195,12070,18936,8449,15974,19724,30538,2241,1255,111,43,139,69,221015,231168,21411,3109,2249,61,1533],"class_list":["post-463308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-able","tag-authority","tag-be","tag-certain","tag-departments","tag-ease","tag-emergency","tag-given","tag-helping","tag-hospital","tag-medicines","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-paramedics","tag-prescribe","tag-pressure","tag-public","tag-soon","tag-to","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}