First prescriptions written by pharmacist independent prescribers in primary care
Paul Saxby
Independent prescriber Beth Hird |
Beth Hird, senior practice pharmacist at Nottinghamshire County Teaching Primary Care Trust, became the first pharmacist in England to write a prescription independently this week. She was also the first
pharmacist to register as an independent prescriber with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (PJ, 20 January, p63).
Mrs Hird runs a weekly asthma clinic at a medical practice in Nottingham.
This week she prescribed a salbutamol inhaler for a patient during an
annual asthma review.
“I was confident that this patient had asthma and that salbutamol
was required. After carrying out my usual assessment and discussion with
the patient I was also confident that the patient needed to continue
their treatment,” explained Mrs Hird. The process was easier than
supplementary prescribing because no clinical management plan was generated
before the clinic — all other processes and assessments remained
the same, she added.
To date, Mrs Hird is the only pharmacist registered in Britain as an
independent prescriber. In Northern Ireland, Emma Quinn, locality prescribing
adviser at South and East Belfast Eastern Health and Social Services
Board, wrote her first prescription as an independent prescriber last
week. She prescribed bendroflumethiazide to treat hypertension in a patient
who had attended her weekly cardiovascular risk management clinic.
Ms Quinn, along with four other pharmacists, registered with the Pharmaceutical
Society of Northern Ireland earlier this year (PJ, 27 January,
p103 (PDF 80K)).
In January, the Northern Ireland Centre for Postgraduate Education and
Training at Queen’s University Belfast became the first course
in the UK to be fully accredited to provide an independent prescribing
programme.
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