Positive PBAC Recommendations on Prescribing Authority for Oncology & Haematology Nurse Practitioners

What this means:

• Once implemented, and where authorised within their individual scope of practice, nurse practitioners will be able to continue treatment and prescribe ongoing scripts for a wide range of oncology and haematology medicines, once the initial prescription has been authorised by a medical specialist.
• This represents a step forward in enabling NPs to work to a higher scope of practice and provides greater continuity and timely access for patients.
• A small number of medicines were excluded from this recommendation, where PBAC determined prescriber eligibility should remain unchanged.

What's important to note:

The PBAC’s role is to make recommendations to the Minister for Health and Aged Care on which medicines should attract a PBS subsidy when prescribed by authorised nurse practitioners. These recommendations are not automatically adopted — the Government must review and approve them before they become PBS policy.

At this stage, the changes are not yet live on the PBS. CNSA will monitor developments closely and provide further updates as more information becomes available.

For full details, please refer to the PBAC’s summary of recommendations here: July 2025 PBAC recommendations – oncology & haematology NP prescribing (PDF)