The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 275 No 7356 p4
2 July 2005

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Pharmacist prescribing evaluation to begin

An evaluation of supplementary prescribing by pharmacists, expected to assess views of patients, doctors and pharmacists, is to be carried out by the University of Sheffield, the Department of Health said this week. The DoH has already completed a survey which found that independent nurse prescribing is viewed positively by patients, doctors and nurses themselves.

The nursing research, carried out by the University of Southampton, evaluated the first two years of extended formulary prescribing and included a national survey, observation of prescribing nurses and the views of stakeholders in its assessment. Patients cited accessibility as a major advantage when obtaining their medicine from a nurse rather than a doctor.

However, a number of nurses were dissatisfied with the limitations of the extended formulary currently available to them and many were unhappy about the lack of access to computer-generated prescriptions.

The research into views of pharmacists’ supplementary prescribing has not yet begun and the DoH does not expect it to be completed for some time.