The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 276 No 7403 p653
3 June 2006

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· DTB
· Education
· Independent prescribing (2)
· Medicines use reviews (2)
· Section 60 Order
· Council election
· The Council

Letters to the Editor

Independent prescribing

The future of the profession

From Mr G. E. Lavender, MRPharmS

Through a dedicated web group many of my fellow supplementary prescribing pharmacists exchange information. The number one topic at the moment is independent prescribing and there is great concern over the time scale of implementation. For nurses the mechanism was in place at the same time as the legal issues were resolved in May. However, pharmacists must wait for a date yet to be fixed sometime later this year. There is also deep concern at the lack of transparency of the process and although the bodies involved are known, the key individuals are not, nor is it clear if any supplementary prescribers are actively involved with the process.

The training for supplementary prescribing does not in itself make one a supplementary prescriber. The training provides the background knowledge and understanding of how to develop the necessary skills, which can only be achieved in active consultations with patients, supplemented by regular review of continuing professional development and active steps to seek to meet any learning or skills needs. It is likely that there is no need for further formal training of supplementary prescribers to convert to independent prescribers but certainly there will be ongoing needs to measure and assess competencies, and clinical governance oversight.

Independent prescribers are the future of this profession and we need to use every resource of the profession to prepare these individuals — as the future face of pharmacy — to other health care professionals and to the general public.

Although the numbers are currently limited, the success of independent prescribing by the first group will determine the success for the whole profession.

Graham Lavender
Ringwood, Hampshire

Grasping at crumbs

From Mr G. C. Barrett, MRPharmS

I write in full support of David Evans (PJ, 27 May, p621) and concur entirely with him that while the nursing profession has grasped the opportunity provided by independent prescribing, pharmacists are left kicking their heels as they wait to see which hoops to jump through next. It is typical that, as a profession, we will be left grasping at the crumbs thrown down by the other professions.

It is, however, the response of Peter Wilson, head of post-registration at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, that causes me the most angst. His answer seems to try to justify why we as a profession are still waiting to learn how and when we can become independent prescribers, while completely ignoring why nurses are exempt from such mechanisms. This is the question Mr Evans asked.

I do not need to be told the “significant differences” between supplementary prescribing and independent prescribing. What I would like to understand is why qualified pharmacist supplementary prescribers are not competent to be independent prescribers while equivalent nurses are deemed to be.

Garry Barrett
Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire

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