{"id":606453,"date":"2026-09-20T18:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T18:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/606453\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T18:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T18:46:10","slug":"st-john-welcomes-move-to-allow-paramedics-to-prescribe-medicines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/606453\/","title":{"rendered":"St John welcomes move to allow paramedics to prescribe medicines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hato Hone St John is not concerned that ambulances will become “mobile pharmacies” when paramedics are able to prescribe medicines<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Health Minister Simeon Brown has announced that paramedics who have been trained to do so will be able to prescribe from a list of 232 medicines covering common infections and treatments needed in urgent and community care, and issue repeat prescriptions from the list for long-term conditions.<\/p>\n

The list of medicines was sensible, the ambulance service’s deputy chief executive of clinical services Jon Moores said.<\/p>\n

“It reflects a need both in what paramedics are likely to see out there in the community but also more broadly making sure we do this in a way that’s safe.”<\/p>\n

Paramedic practice would benefit from the move, which came with safeguards such as postgraduate-level training, certification, peer review, auditing, and medical director oversight, he said.<\/p>\n

He was not expecting it to change the day-to-day workload.<\/p>\n

“This will really be used by a small subset of specialist paramedics so there’ll be a number that will go through the training, paramedics work in a range of different settings now, clinics, hospital, ambulance, tele-health.<\/p>\n

“So it’s great that they’ve got some additional tools and capabilities to be able to help them support patients.”<\/p>\n

The first paramedic prescribers are expected to begin practising from late 2027.<\/p>\n

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