The New Zealand Myopia Action Group (NZMAG) says a proposed bill “will limit the prescription of non-approved medicines to only medical practitioners, preventing community optometrists prescribing compounded low dose atropine to manage myopia in their patients as we do now.”

NZMAG is making a submission on the proposed Therapeutic Product Bill. Therapeutic optometrist Alex Petty said NZMAG’s main concern was section 75 of the proposed bill. “We believe that optometrists (with therapeutic prescribing rights), not just medical practitioners, should be able to issue a special clinical needs supply authority (SCNSA) for medicines that do not have a product approval in New Zealand, if these fall within an optometrist’s scope of practice,” he said.

The Ministry of Health’s consultation document can be found here. Submissions close on 18 April.