Patient Information

Fitness

Physiotherapists are required to demonstrate their “fitness for registration” before beginning practice in New Zealand. In this context, fitness for registration includes:

• Ability to communicate effectively
• Ability to speak and understand English
• Clean disciplinary record
• No serious criminal convictions
• No physical or mental impairment

Once a physiotherapist is registered, if it comes to the attention of the Board that a practitioner has a problem in one or more of the above categories, the Board may take action to protect the health and safety of the public. Such actions may include; placing conditions on the practitioner’s scope of practice, requiring the practitioner to undergo a competence programme, or suspending the practitioner.