Independent pharmacist prescribing becomes legal, but no training courses are available yet
Prospective pharmacist prescribers will need to retrain |
Pharmacists were given the legislative go-ahead to prescribe independently this week. However the first prescribers are not likely to qualify until the end of the year.
Qualified pharmacist and nurse independent prescribers in England have
been allowed to prescribe any licensed medicine for any condition within
their competence (with the exception of all Controlled Drugs for pharmacists)
from 1 May. Work to bring about legislative changes in Scotland and Wales
is currently under way.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society confirmed that work on the curriculum
for independent prescribing has begun, but it is not expected to be available
until later this year.
There are currently 555 pharmacist supplementary prescribers in England
(224 in Scotland, 49 in Wales and eight overseas). To become independent
prescribers they will need to undertake a conversion course.
Commenting on the DoH announcement, Hemant Patel, President of the Society,
said: “This is perhaps the most significant professional development
opportunity for pharmacists that we have seen in a generation. Ten years
ago, in the Pharmacy in a new age strategy, the profession said that
it wanted to be able to prescribe independently in a wide range of circumstances.
Ever since, the Society has been working to make that patient-focused
ambition a reality.
“Now, the Society will be working hard to ensure that pharmacists
take up the great opportunities that independent prescribing offers.
Already
supplementary prescribing is transforming the way that patients experience
the benefit of pharmacists’ skills. Now, the independent pharmacist
prescriber will redefine the patient’s experience of our profession
at the clinical frontline. This is a golden opportunity for pharmacists
to demonstrate what they can do.” |
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