NZNO welcomes your feedback on the Ministry of Health’s proposed actions to achieve their Smokefree 2025 goal.

It is a decade since New Zealand adopted the goal to reduce smoking prevalence and tobacco availability to minimal levels, essentially making Aotearoa New Zealand Smokefree by 2025.

Over this time, smoking rates have continued to decline; however, the Ministry reports that much work still needs to be done, particularly to reduce smoking rates among Māori, Pacific peoples and those living in our most disadvantaged communities.

The Action Plan is attached for your consideration.

You can read more about the consultation process here.

Please send feedback to policyanalysts@nzno.org.nz by 21 May.

NZNO welcomes your feedback on a bill that aims to introduce mandatory regulation of safety standards for sunscreen products.

Because sunscreen is currently classified as a cosmetic in New Zealand, manufacturers are not required to regularly test the products, and the sunscreen standard is voluntary. This is despite New Zealand having one of the highest rates of skin cancer and melanoma.

The Bill proposes requiring the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to recommend the making of regulations under the Fair Trading Act 1986. 

You can read the bill here.

Please send feedback to policyanalysts@nzno.org.nz by 17 May.

Aotearoa New Zealand's histories are being incorporated into the national curriculum to ensure that all ākonga (learners) in all schools and kura learn about fundamental aspects of our country’s history and how these have shaped our lives.

NZNO sees this as very important from an equity perspective. We welcome your feedback on the draft curriculum content (attached). Please note we are particularly keen to hear from members who are supporting health services in schools.

Further information about the consultation process can be found here.

Please send feedback to policyanalysts@nzno.org.nz by 24 May.

NZNO welcomes your feedback on Louisa Wall’s bill which is currently before the Health Committee.

The bill aims to protect the safety and wellbeing, and respect the privacy and dignity, of women accessing abortion facilities and practitioners providing and helping with abortion services. It seeks to do so by providing a regulation-making power to set up safe areas around specific abortion facilities on a case-by-case basis.

You can read the bill here.

Please send feedback to Leanne.Manson@nzno.org.nz by 21 April.

Feedback is sought on the WDC’s name, the industry coverage, and the governance arrangements.

Further information is available here on the TEC website.

Please send feedback to policyanalysts@nzno.org.nz by 28 January 2021.

NZNO warmly invites your feedback on a revised draft version of the standard for health and disability services. The document sets out the minimum requirements necessary to present fair and equitable health and disability services. It aims to improve the experience and outcomes of people and whanau, and reduce care variation. It reflects a shift to more person- and whānau-centred health and disability services.

Further information about the consultation is available on the Standards New Zealand website.

Nursing Policy Adviser/Researcher Sue Gasquoine will collate and submit NZNO feedback.

Please send your feedback to sue.gasquoine@nzno.org.nz by 5pm on 8th January 2021.

NZNO warmly invites your feedback on Aratohu tika tangata ki te whai whare rawaka i Aotearoa | Guidelines on the right to a decent home in Aotearoa.

The Guidelines address the unique context of Aotearoa and Te Tiriti O Waitangi, aiming to clarify what the right to a decent home means.

Implementation of the guidelines should result in better design and delivery of housing services, thereby supporting a healthier and more socially just Aotearoa for individuals, families, hapū, whānau and communities.

Further information about the consultation is available here on the Human Rights Commission website.

Senior Policy Analyst Lucia Bercinskas will collate all responses into an NZNO submission.

Please send your feedback to PolicyAnalysts@nzno.org.nz by midday 16 December 2020.

Short timeframe - NZNO encourages you to provide feedback on the Mental Health and Addiction Services Monitoring and Advocacy Framework. This framework will support the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission (MHWC)’s function to monitor mental health services and addiction services and will be used to advocate for improvements to those services. 

This is an important opportunity for NZNO to provide input into the fundamentals of the monitoring framework such as:

• Why monitor services?
• Monitor what?
• How to monitor?

Further information about the consultation is available on the MHWC website.

Senior Policy Analyst Lucia Bercinskas will collate all responses into an NZNO submission.

Please send your feedback to PolicyAnalysts@nzno.org.nz by midday 4 December 2020.

NZNO welcomes your feedback on Ministry of Health’s draft Infections Surveillance Data Standard.

To support the ability to monitor the occurrence of infections or an outbreak by key organisms using an infection surveillance system, data needs to be captured consistently.

The draft Infection Surveillance Data Standard has been designed to identify the minimum information required to be captured for a patient’s health care encounter when a suspected or confirmed infection has been identified. This document covers infections identified in both the community and hospital setting.

Please find further information and the draft standard online here. If no feedback is received, NZNO will not make a submission.

Please send feedback to PolicyAnalysts@nzno.org.nz by 6 November 2020.

The NZ College of Primary Health Care Nurses (NZNO) supports continued nursing education (CNE) providers to ensure our members have access to a library of quality courses, conferences, workshops and online activities that are relevant to primary health care nursing.  This in turn supports members to meet their continuing professional development (CPD) requirements as per Nursing Council NZ (NCNZ) of minimum of 60 hours over a 3-year period (NCNZ 2008).

The NZCPHCN has developed this policy to support applications for endorsement of CNE, which indicates the college has reviewed a CNE activity to ensure it meets the quality criteria of the college.

Further information can be seen here: 
/Portals/0/Files/Documents/Groups/Primary%20Healthcare%20Nurses/2020-08-19%20NZCPHCN%20Endorsment%20of%20Education%20Application%20Form.docx

Please review this policy and provide feedback using track changes Word document or via email text. Please indicate which page/section you are referring to. Individual or group submissions are welcome.

Thank you for your consideration of this proposed policy.

Please send feedback to nicola.thompson@nmdhb.govt.nz by Thursday 10 September 2020.

NZNO warmly welcomes your feedback on this significant Bill, which extends regulatory coverage to all vaping and smokeless tobacco products. The Bill aims to strike a balance between protecting children and young people from the risks associated with vaping products, and enabling smokers to switch to less harmful alternatives. 

The Bill applies many of the existing restrictions for smoked tobacco products to vaping and smokeless tobacco products. In particular, the Bill prohibits:

• the sale of vaping and smokeless tobacco products to persons under the age of 18; 
• the advertising and sponsorship of vaping and smokeless tobacco products; and
• ​the use of vaping and smokeless tobacco products in indoor workplaces, early childhood centres, and schools.

To ensure that less harmful products are available as a quitting tool, the Bill exempts vaping and smokeless tobacco products from some of the restrictions that otherwise apply to smoked tobacco products. E.g. all retailers can display vaping and smokeless tobacco products at the point of sale, but cigarettes and loose leaf tobacco must be kept out of the public’s sight.

Please find the Bill attached here: 
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-proposed-laws/document/BILL_94933/smokefree-environments-and-regulated-products-vaping

Please send feedback to Leanne.Manson@nzno.org.nz by 25 March 2020.

NZNO welcomes your feedback on a draft action plan specifically for disabled people and people with health conditions because they often face barriers to getting and staying in work.  In particular, we would like feedback on whether the action plan includes the right actions to improve outcomes for disabled people and people with health conditions. 

Drawing on previous consultation and evidence, the draft action plan proposes a set of actions to tackle the employment gap based around two overarching goals:

1. disabled people and people with health conditions have an equal opportunity to access good work and 

2. employers are good at attracting and retaining disabled people and people with health conditions.

Please see the action plan link.

Please send feedback to sue.gasquoine@nzno.org.nz by 14 February 2020.

NZNO welcomes your feedback on a consultation that sets out a range of options for modernising the legislation relating to death, burial, cremation and funerals in New Zealand. This consultation will help inform the development of a modern, fit-for-purpose legislation for death, burial, cremation and funerals.

Please see the link for the Consultation document and survey.

Send feedback to Leanne.Manson@nzno.org.nz by 3 April 2020. 

Medsafe is seeking comments on proposed changes to current warning and advisory statements for paracetamol. At the December 2018 Medicines Adverse Reactions Committee (MARC) meeting, the Committee discussed a serious case report of acute liver failure in a young patient due to a suspected overdose of paracetamol. The Committee noted that they had discussed similar case reports in the past, indicating an ongoing issue (December 2018 Medicines Adverse Reactions Committee Meeting Minutes). 

We are seeking your views on the proposed paracetamol conditions, warning statements and dosing table in their consultation document.

Please complete the attached survey questions document and send to jill.wilkinson@nzno.org.nz by 24^th January 2020 

NZNO seeks your feedback specifically on section 6 of this plan which focuses on supporting the delivery of safe drinking water. Safe drinking water is a fundamental of public health which is proving increasingly unreliable in Aotearoa New Zealand and poses risks to human health, for example the Havelock North drinking water crisis and excess nitrates in drinking water in areas of intensive farming. We are particular we interested in whether you:

• support the proposals to amend the National Environmental Standards for Sources of Drinking Water (NES) and
• agree with the proposal to strengthen the obligations on regional councils and territorial authorities to manage risks to source waters through amendment to the Drinking Water NES.

Please  find the discussion document here:

https://www.mfe.govt.nz/sites/default/files/media/Fresh%20water/action-for-healthy-waterways.pdf

Please send feedback to diana.cookson@nzno.org.nz by October 10, 2019.