Hospital Pharmacist
Vol 10 No 11 p468
December 2003

News summary

Article 12 of POM order to be extended

Government ministers have recently accepted recommendations from the Committee on Safety of Medicines that Article 12 of the Prescription-Only Medicine order should be extended to include supplementary prescribers and independent nurse prescribers. The extension will allow medicines to be sold or supplied in accordance with the written instructions of a supplementary prescriber (or an independent nurse prescriber) in the course of a business of a hospital.

The extension was sought because of confusion about whether inpatient drug charts meet the requirements for prescriptions set out in Article 15 of the POM order. Legislation is expected early in 2004.

Gul Root, principal pharmaceutical officer at the Department of Health welcomes this amendment to medicines legislation. She told Hospital Pharmacist that it “clarifies beyond doubt the uncertainty that existed as to whether writing on drug charts as a means of prescribing and supplying medicines complies with the requirements of Article 15 of the POM order.”

Mrs Root spoke about the DoH’s vision for pharmacist supplementary prescribing at the Hospital Pharmacist conference held in London on 30 October (see p484-5).