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(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations make changes to Regulations relating to pharmaceutical services, general medical services and charges for drugs and appliances, arising out of the designation of a new category of prescriber of medicines and appliances for human use.
Regulation 2 amends the National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 1992. (“the Pharmaceutical Services Regulations”). Under amendments to the Prescription Only Medicines (Human Use) Order 1997 which are coming into force at the same time as these Regulations, “supplementary prescribers”, who are appropriately qualified nurses and pharmacists, are being given new rights to prescribe prescription only medicines under an agreed clinical management plan for an individual patient. These“ supplementary prescribers” will also be qualified to prescribe other medicines and appliances under such plans. The pre-existing category of “nurse prescriber” in the Pharmaceutical Services Regulations is renamed as “independent nurse prescriber” to differentiate more clearly between the different categories of nurses who may prescribe. Amendments are made to the terms of service provisions in Schedule 2 to the Pharmaceutical Services Regulations to ensure that chemists may dispense against prescriptions of supplementary prescribers, and to update the other provisions of that Schedule so that that where reference is made to orders or prescriptions for medicines or appliances, the provisions reflect the possibility that the order or prescription may now come from a supplementary prescriber.
Regulation 3 makes changes to the National Health Service (General Medical Services) Regulations 1992. As a result, the existing rules relating to the employment by doctors of “nurse prescribers” will now relate both to nurses who are supplementary prescribers and, as before, to nurses who are independent nurse prescribers. Also, doctors who employ supplementary prescribers are required to have arrangements in place to ensure that the supplementary prescribers they employ comply with the regime of control relating to supplementary prescribing. A change is also made to the list of drugs that may only be prescribed in certain circumstances in Schedule 11 to those Regulations. As a consequence Levitra may only be prescribed under the National Health Service in the circumstances specified in that Schedule.
Amendments arising out of the introduction of supplementary prescribing are also made to the National Health Service (Charges for Drugs and Appliances) Regulations 2000. These follow on from the fact that supplementary prescribers may now be issuing prescriptions forms, as well as potentially taking responsibility for prescribing for patients in Walk-in-Centres, if the supplementary prescribers are parties to a clinical management plan for that patient.
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