Prescribing & Medicines Management
Issue no 2, p15
March/April 2003

Features

Faculty tackles pharmacist prescribing

The theme of supplementary prescribing by pharmacists proved to be a hot topic for the Faculty of Prescribing and Medicines Management's first one-day conference. The event was held in Nottingham in November 2002 and attracted considerable interest with all the 125 available places being rapidly filled.

Dr June Crown, author of the report "The review of prescribing, supply and administration of medicines" opened with the plenary conference address. She described the evolution of the concept of non-doctor prescribing in the context of developments in the range and complexity of medicines that are now available. She also stressed the importance of changes to professional education and training programmes, the need for improvements in clinical team-working and recognised the need for legislation to catch up with existing practice.

Faculty board chairman and Chief Executive of the National Prescribing Centre, Clive Jackson, followed by presenting an illuminating explanation of the relevant policy documents and enabling legislation that will underpin the new routes to supplying medicines. This included a state-of-the-art provisional definition for supplementary prescribing: "A voluntary partnership between the responsible independent prescriber and a supplementary prescriber, to implement an agreed, patient-specific Clinical Management Plan with the patient's agreement, particularly but not only in relation to prescribing for a specific, non-acute medical condition or health need, affecting the patient".

The implications of this definition for the pharmacy profession and individual pharmacists pre-empted the morning workshop session. In small groups, delegates were asked to consider three routes for supplying medicines in the future and the potential implications for their own practice. These were supplementary prescribing, patient group directions and the ongoing process of reclassification of medicines from prescription-only (POM) to pharmacy medicines (P). The feedback from these workshops will help the Faculty to shape its professional development programme.

The lunch break proved to be an extremely useful opportunity for delegates to share experiences from their own area of practice and for following up ideas stimulated by the morning's discussions.

In the afternoon, six skill and knowledge-building sessions gave delegates the opportunity to consider practical aspects of non-doctor prescribing. The topics included pharmacist prescribing and the relationship with the pharmaceutical industry; prescribing analysis for pharmacist prescribers; risk management; concordance — issues for pharmacist prescribers; lessons learned from nurse prescribing; and what will patients want to know about?

Members of the Faculty board finished the afternoon session with an opportunity for associate members to hear about progress made towards important issues. This included feedback on achievements during the Faculty's first full year of operation, an update on the requirements for full membership and the work programme for the coming year.

The one-day workshop format proved popular, with over 80 per cent of delegates stating that the conference would help them in their job. Here is a selection of comments from feedback forms.

"An excellent thought-provoking day that has helped formulate my ideas around supplementary prescribing in particular"

"Good balance between enthusiasm for supplementary prescribing and the risks associated with it" and

"Lots of ideas generated — really helped me to start thinking about issues, many of which I would not have thought of"

With this sort of feedback and membership of the Faculty now topping 430 associates, early booking for the next Faculty event is highly recommended. Associates have already been sent details about the spring conference: "Making the right decision. Positive approaches to risk management and patient safety". It will be held on Thursday 22 May 2003at Jury's Inn, Birmingham.

So if you are not an associate of the Faculty already and would like to attend, now might be the time to think about joining. Details and application form can be found on the College of Pharmacy Practice website.