EU prescriptions could in future be valid in the UK
Jan Kranendonk/Dreamstime.com
European Commission intervenes in prescription legislation |
Legislation that controls the prescribing and dispensing of medicines
in the UK and defines what information a prescription must contain in
order to be valid is about to become fragmented as a result of intervention
by the European Commission.
The commission has said that the part of the Medicines Act 1968 that restricts the prescribing of prescription-only medicines and unlicensed treatments to UK registered health professionals does not comply with the European Community treaty.
As a result, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has launched a consultation on proposals to allow prescriptions written by doctors and dentists in the European Economic Area — the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway — and, possibly, Switzerland to be valid in the UK.
The MHRA says that most countries in the EEA do not operate registration systems that allow pharmacists to authenticate prescribers, which means that pharmacists will have no way of checking whether a European doctor or dentist is authorised to prescribe. Instead, they will have to rely on their professional judgement. In addition, the consultation proposes that the rules about what information a prescription must show in order to be valid should not apply to European prescriptions.
The due diligence test that provides pharmacists with a potential defence against charges of supplying a medicine unlawfully if a prescription subsequently proves to be forged will also apply to European prescriptions, but the consultation gives no clues as to what might constitute due diligence.
There will be no obligation to dispense any European prescription, but the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland are expected to produce professional guidance on how pharmacists should decide whether or not to dispense a foreign prescription.
At present, the UK is the only EEA country that allows practitioners other than doctors and dentists to prescribe human medicines. The plan is to rewrite the legislation so that prescriptions from other European practitioners will be valid in the UK once they are allowed to prescribe in their own countries.
The current proposal does not apply to any Controlled Drugs, but the MHRA is asking for views on whether it is right for all Schedule 1 to 5 CDs to be excluded.
|
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
Acrobat
Reader