Supplementary prescribing to be extended next year
Chiropodists, physiotherapists, radiographers and optometrists are to be the next professionals to join the ranks of supplementary prescribers. The planned legislative change will apply throughout the UK, but it is for the devolved administrations to determine the extent of its local application in the NHS.
Consultation on proposals to allow members of these groups to start supplementary
prescribing from early in 2005 started on 10 May and will continue for
12 weeks.
Although the consultation contains no proposals on the extent of the
responsibility for these new prescribers, the Department of Health says
that they would encompass the treatment and management of conditions
such as glaucoma, chronic back pain and the effects of multiple sclerosis,
as well as providing pain relief for patients attending radiography sessions.
Supplementary
prescribing is a voluntary partnership between a doctor
or dentist and another health professional to prescribe
medicines under agreed patient-specific
clinical management plans. It is not restricted to the NHS. Currently,
supplementary
prescribers cannot prescribe Controlled Drugs, but this is expected to
become possible later this year.
Dietitians, occupational therapists, orthotists, prosthetists,
and speech and language therapists will be allowed to supply and
administer prescription medicines under patient group directions
from 18 May (PJ, 9 August 2003, p166). Chiropodists, physiotherapists,
radiographers and optometrists are already allowed to sell, supply
or administer medicines under patient group directions.
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