NOTICE OF SCOPES OF PRACTICE AND RELATED QUALIFICATIONS PRESCRIBED BY THE MEDICAL LABORATORY TECHNOLOGISTS BOARD
This notice replaces the notice published by the Board in the New Zealand Gazette,
10 June 2004, No. 68, page 1631.
The Medical Laboratory Technologists Board will become the Medical Laboratory Science Board on 18 September 2004. These notices will take effect from 18 September 2004.
The Board will maintain a Register of laboratory health practitioners, each of whom will have an approved scope of practice within medical laboratory science.
SCOPES OF PRACTICE:
The two scopes of practice approved by the Board under Section 11 of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 are:
Medical laboratory scientist
Medical laboratory technician
Qualifications Prescribed for Registration in a Scope of Practice
(a) A. Medical Laboratory Scientist
The qualifications required for registration as a medical laboratory scientist shall be one of the following:
1. Bachelor of Medical Laboratory Science (BMLSc) degree from a New Zealand university accredited by the Board
2. A post-graduate qualification, approved by the Board in each case, combined with relevant and specialised medical laboratory experience that in the opinion of the Board is sufficient for registration as a medical laboratory scientist
3. Certification in medical laboratory science by a certification authority outside New Zealand approved by the Board, combined with relevant and specialised medical laboratory experience that in the opinion of the Board is sufficient for registration as a medical laboratory scientist
4. A course of training and examination or examinations that, in the opinion of the Board, are substantially equivalent to the course of training and examinations for the New Zealand BMLSc degree
5. An undergraduate qualification, approved by the Board in each case, combined with subsequent relevant and specialised medical laboratory experience gained prior to 18 September 2005 that in the opinion of the Board is sufficient for registration as a medical laboratory scientist.
B. Medical Laboratory Technician
The qualifications required for registration as a medical laboratory technician shall be one of the following:
1. A Qualified Technical Assistant (QTA) certificate or Qualified Phlebotomist Technician (QPT) certificate issued by the New Zealand Institute of Medical Laboratory Science (NZIMLS)
2. A Bachelors degree in a field of science awarded by a New Zealand university, approved in each case by the Board, combined with a minimum of twelve months relevant full-time (or equivalent) medical laboratory experience that in the opinion of the Board is sufficient for registration as a medical laboratory technician
3. A New Zealand Certificate in Science, approved in each case by the Board, combined with a minimum of twelve months relevant full-time (or equivalent) medical laboratory experience that in the opinion of the Board is sufficient for registration as medical laboratory technician
4. A course of training and an examination or examinations combined with relevant medical laboratory experience that in the opinion of the Board is sufficient for registration as medical laboratory technician
5. Four years' relevant full-time (or equivalent) experience in a New Zealand medical laboratory obtained prior to 18 September 2005 which, in the opinion of the Board, is sufficient for registration; providing that the applicant shall have been employed in a New Zealand medical laboratory during at least four years of the eight years preceding 18 September 2005.

Dated at Wellington this 6th day of August 2004
PHIL SAXBY, Secretary, Medical Laboratory Technologists Board