End of Life Choice Act 2019

You do not have to be involved in providing assisted dying services if you have a conscientious objection.  

Regardless of your personal beliefs you should still meet professional standards by not inhibiting someone’s access to lawful medical treatment and ensuring that continuity of care is maintained for a person requesting assisted dying.

If a medical practitioner with a conscientious objection is asked by a patient about assisted dying, they have certain responsibilities under the Act. They must:

• inform the person of their objection
• tell the person that they have the right to ask the Support and Consultation for End of Life in New Zealand (SCENZ) Group for the name and contact details of a medical practitioner who is willing to participate in assisted dying.

The Act establishes the SCENZ Group to oversee a range of responsibilities related to assisted dying. These responsibilities include making and maintaining a list of health practitioners who are willing to provide assisted dying services. You can read more about the SCENZ Group on the Ministry’s website.

Other health practitioners with a conscientious objection can also follow these steps. They could also suggest that a person talks to their medical practitioner about assisted dying and/or direct a person to where they can find information about assisted dying.

The End Of Life Choice Act Pinnacle network clinical Zoom with Dr Kristin Good and Alastair Higham-Lee is an opportunity to hear from the implementation team how the act will change your practice, and where to access resources to learn more.

• People will be able to request assisted dying from 7 November 2021.
• A person must meet strict criteria to be eligible for assisted dying.
• A person must be competent to make an informed decision about assisted dying.
• The person must raise the topic of assisted dying first, it must not be presented to them as an option.
• Providers of assisted dying services must have the appropriate skills and knowledge to assess, counsel and administer medication.
• The process can stop at any time. 

Providers of the service will make claims directly from the MOH via an assisted dying web portal which is in development.

Pinnacle readiness guide

It's important all staff - not only clinical staff - feel informed and knowledgeable about the EOLC Act in case they receive questions from patients. This readiness guide (PPT) has been created to help Pinnacle practices get ready for implementation, outlining key information and discussion points including options and obligations, who has oversight of assisted dying, support for health professionals and peers, how to talk to patients about assisted dying and more.

We encourage practices to have a staff wide meeting to discuss the Act and the roles and responsibilites for your practice. This readiness guide can assist with this covernsation.

Practices need to implement a policy for assisted dying services. There is a policy guidance document on the Ministry of Health website and you can use this Pinnacle template (Word doc) to develop a policy specific to your practice. 

There are three e-learning modules about assisted dying that all health professionals are encouraged to complete. These can be accessed through LearnOnline (note registration is needed).

• End of Life Choice Act 2019: Overview – this e-learning module provides an overview of the Act, including a practitioner’s rights and responsibilities.
• Assisted dying care pathway: Overview – this e-learning module explains the process for accessing assisted dying, including the roles of different health practitioners.
• Responding when a person raises assisted dying – this e-learning module is to support practitioners to respond respectfully and appropriately when a person raises assisted dying, including best practice communication skills.

A specific care pathway is provided for medical practitioners not providing assisted dying services.

In addition, there are five e-learning modules for medical and nurse practitioners who plan to provide assisted dying services. These cover the assessment process, preparations for an assisted death, assisted death and after-care, and practitioner safety and wellbeing. Practitioners can request access to these modules by emailing 
AssistedDying@health.govt.nz. 

Please create a LearnOnline account before emailing, and in the email provide your name, profession, date of birth, email connected to LearnOnline account, Medical or Nursing Council number.

Providers of the service will be required to complete the five e-learning modules to claim funding under the section 88 notice.

The Ministry of Health has a number of additional resources that practices may want to use to further inform staff. These include the following.

• EOLC Act information for patients, health professionals and nurse practitioners.
• Information about funding and delivery.
• How to prepare at a practice level, care pathways for GPs, nurses, other staff, and advice around what to do when someone raises assisted dying are available on the Ministry of Health website.
• Scenarios to support planning (PDF).

These are also available through LearnOnline. 

We will continue to update practices, and this page, as we receive new information.

• If you have questions, please contact Dr Jo Scott-Jones or email AssistedDying@health.govt.nz.
• You can also subscribe to receive the EOLC implementation updates. These are a great source to keep you up to date with progress and any relevant or important information.