Minister of Health Simeon Brown has gutted the Nursing Council in a ministerial overreach which fails to focus on patient safety and gets ahead of his own deregulation process, NZNO says.

The Nursing Council board consists of up to 14 members and is a mixture of Ministerial appointees and members elected by nurses.

Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO Kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku says Simeon Brown has replaced eight existing members, four last September and four in February.

"The chair and three board members who wanted to stay on have been replaced by the Minister. Two members did not seek reappointment. NZNO is also aware that two internationally qualified nurses have resigned in protest.

"Simeon Brown’s appointments have taken the number of nurses on the board from seven down to four.

"When almost half our nursing workforce - 43% - are internationally qualified, it is vital they are represented on the board.

"Nurses are the greatest advocates patients have. They understand their patients’ needs more than any other workforce as they work most often and most closely with them.

"Despite his constant rhetoric that he is putting patients first, Simeon Brown has made no attempt to ensure patient needs are the focus of a nurse-strong Council board," Kerri Nuku says.

The changes at the Council come as the Government is preparing to give greater ministerial powers to direct responsible regulators through changes to the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act.

"Simeon Brown is getting ahead of his own process by choosing to put fewer nurses on the board.

"The Minister has form here after he admitted making unprecedented and sweeping changes to the Medical Council because he believed members were ‘pursuing an ideological agenda and becoming distracted from its core responsibilities’," Kerri Nuku says.