Regulations to allow independent prescribing by pharmacists came into effect in May 2006. Pharmacist independent prescribers can prescribe for any clinical condition but they must only prescribe within their professional and clinical competence.
For Department of Health guidance, click here
For information about the curriculum for independent prescribing programmes, click on the links below:
Contact:
Tel: 020 7572 2604Pharmacists as prescribers: The UK experience A one day introduction to the current experience in the UK of pharmacist prescribing was held by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain on 11 June 2007 at the Sheraton Hotel, Schipol Airport, Amsterdam. For speaker presentations, click here
Pharmacist prescriber pack For a pharmacist prescriber pack produced by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, click here
Clinical governance framework For the Society's clinical governance framework for pharmacist prescribers, click here
Records management: NHS Code of Practice The NHS code of practice for records management is a guide to the required standards of practice in the managment of records for those who work within or under contract to NHS organisations in England. It is based on current legal requirements and professional best practice. The guidelines contained in this code of practice apply to NHS records of all types (including records of NHS patients treated on behalf of the NHS in the private healthcare sector) regardless of the media on which they are held. For more information, click here
Discussion forum To apply to become a member of the Society's discussion forum for pharmacist prescribers, contact:
e-mail: practice@rpsgb.orgFor more about prescribing by pharmacists, click on the links below:
While a pharmacist independent prescriber will be able to prescribe any medicine (excluding Controlled Drugs at present) for any condition, it is not anticipated that pharmacists will be consulted by and prescribe for all patients who need treatment with medicines. Some pharmacist independent prescribers will have a role in prescribing for patients who present with minor ailments or a defined range of self-limiting conditions. Other pharmacist independent prescribers will specialise in the management of patients with identified clinical conditions. As independent prescribers they will be able to work as autonomous practitioners making prescribing decisions based on their assessment of the patient’s condition and their judgement of the most appropriate medication regime. An advantage of pharmacist independent prescribing is that in addition to the management of the presenting condition, the pharmacist will be able to respond to the signs and symptoms of an additional clinical problem and make a professional decision on whether to treat the patient or refer to another practitioner.
All pharmacist independent prescribers, whether prescribing for self-limiting conditions or managing a specified disease, will be providing a professional service that is within their professional competence and agreed with a health organisation that has responsibility for the health services provided to the patient. In return the health service organisation will provide the funding for the service.
It is the arrangement with the health service organisation that defines the scope of the pharmacist’s prescribing practice. Working within a health economy should also provide an environment within which the pharmacist can interact with other health service staff, including prescribers, with responsibility for the patient. It can potentially also provide an environment in which the pharmacist can develop their practice through continuing professional development into additional clinical areas that meet service needs.Pharmacist independent prescribing is different from pharmacist supplementary prescribing in the degree of autonomy and clinical responsibility exercised by the pharmacist in their prescribing practice. If circumstances dictate or if the pharmacist chooses, a pharmacist independent prescriber can work as a supplementary prescriber.
In summary, supplementary prescribing is a partnership between a medical practitioner (independent prescriber) who establishes the diagnosis and initiates treatment, a pharmacist (supplementary prescriber) who monitors the patient and prescribes further supplies of medication and the patient who agrees to the supplementary prescribing arrangement.
For each patient, the framework for supplementary prescribing is set out in an individual clinical management plan which contains details of the patient, their condition, treatment with medicines and when the patient should be referred back to the independent prescriber. Unlike pharmacist independent prescribing, a supplementary prescriber can only prescribe within the limitations of the clinical management plan and cannot prescribe for conditions that are not included in the clinical management plan
When supplementary prescribing was proposed, the Society established a task group under the leadership of Dr June Crown to respond to the proposals. The final report from this group contains more details of how supplementary prescribing could be implemented including recommendations for education and training and clinical governance. The final report of the Pharmacist Prescribing Task Group is available here as a PDF file. Click on the link below:
Final report of Pharmacist Prescribing Task Group
Pharmacists who wish to become prescribers must complete an accredited education and training programme. Independent prescribing programmes last the equivalent of 26 days over three to six months, with an additional 12 days' learning in practice supervised by a medical practitioner.
The Society has published an outline curriculum for training programmes, which is available here as a PDF file. Click on the link below:
Outline curriculum for training programmes to prepare pharmacists prescribers (August 2006)
Pharmacists who wish to train as prescribers would normally need to:
For information about universities providing prescribing programmes, click here
In each area of the NHS, Workforce Development Confederations, or their equivalent, commission prescribing training programmes from local universities specifically for pharmacists and nurses in their geographical area. While each university will be able to supply information about their prescribing training, applications for funded training places would normally have to be made via the NHS. It may not be possible to obtain WDC funding for training at a university with which it does not have a commissioning agreement.
Pharmacists who successfully complete one of the prescribing courses accredited by the Society may apply to have their entry in the Register of Pharmaceutical Chemists annotated. Annotation of the register is essential for a pharmacist with a prescribing qualification to be able to prescribe.
Applications for annotation of the Register must be submitted to the Society within six months of the date of award of the practice certificate. For a downloadable application form, please click here. Completed applications should be submitted to the Society's Registration Section. There is a £49 registration fee.
To check if a pharmacist's entry in the Register has been annotated, click here
Pharmacist supplementary prescribers who have been qualified as a prescriber for less than five years can become independent prescribers by completing a conversion course. The conversion course involves the equivalent of two days' learning and a minimum of two days' learning in practice supervised by a medical practitioner. The course covers the knowledge and skills needed for making autonomous prescribing decisions based on the clinical assessment of patients, not only of the clinical needs for which the patient is consulting the pharmacist but also to ascertain if there are any other clinical problems that require attention or referral by the pharmacist.
For the conversion course curriculum, click here
For information about universities providing a conversion course, click here
For the report of a conference, Supplementary prescribing one year on, held by the Society in April 2005, click here
For the Society's briefing paper on supplementary prescribing by pharmacists (January 2004), click here
A special feature about supplementary prescribing by pharmacists was published in The Pharmaceutical Journal on 4 January, 2003 (click here).
The National Prescribing Centre has developed competency frameworks for pharmacist supplementary prescribers and pharmacist independent prescribers which can be used by managers or pharmacists as a source of information, for staff selection or as a training resource. The NPC has also developed a resource document to help health professionals understand and apply the framework for supplementary prescribing.
For the NPC supplementary prescribing competency framework, click
here
For the NPC independent prescribing competency framework, click
here
For the NPC resource document, click here
The Non-medical prescribing section of the National
electronic Library for Medicines (NeLM) contains a wide range of
resources to support the implementation of supplementary prescribing.
For NeLM, click
here