First prescription signed by a hospital pharmacist
A hospital pharmacist has become the first pharmacist supplementary prescriber known to The
Pharmaceutical Journal.
Neil Frankland: boundaries will be pushed |
Neil Frankland prescribed for an elderly patient with constipation
on 18 March — nearly a month after he graduated with his practice
certificate in supplementary prescribing from the University of Sunderland.
Mr Frankland, lead pharmacist for surgery at North Tyneside General Hospital,
North Shields, described how he felt when he completed the inpatient
prescription chart: “It represented the end of a process because
it’s been difficult to imagine how it would work in secondary care.
In primary care, where I have worked before, and you are in a clinic,
it’s easy to see how it would happen,” he said.
Mr Frankland prescribed the drug, its dosage and its frequency after
a diagnosis by his independent prescriber, consultant geriatrician Joanna
Cox. The management care plan, signed by consultant, pharmacist and patient,
requires him to review the patient’s medication daily and Dr Cox
to reassess the case after a week.
Mr Frankland added: “It is a cumbersome relationship having the
triumvirate and I expect the boundaries are going to be pushed as time
goes on.” Management of constipation was selected for the care
plan because it had not been a top priority at the trust.
Dr Cox said: “I think patients are much happier talking to a pharmacist
about their medication than a doctor. Also the junior doctor can’t
get down to the wards every day, so I think the patient gets closer attention.”
Dr Cox is mentoring another pharmacist training to become a supplementary
prescriber, She expects the care plan to cover cardiovascular disease.
Mr Frankland’s next care plan is likely to be analgesics for older
people.
The Journal would like to hear from pharmacists working in the
community and primary care settings when they start to prescribe following
registration
as supplementary prescribers.
| Minister welcomes
first prescribers Health Minister Rosie
Winterton has welcomed the first pharmacists to qualify as supplementary
prescribers. During a visit to Bradford University last week she
said: “Extending prescribing responsibilities to pharmacists
will make getting the right medicine easier and more convenient
than ever before and will help to reduce the burden on GPs by giving
them more time to deal with acutely ill patients.” The first
prescribers trained at King’s College London were also due
to qualify this week.
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal