Extended prescribing by UK nurses and pharmacists: Triumph of common sense

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7528.1337

BMJ 2005;331:1337 (3 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7528.1337

Letter

Extended prescribing by UK nurses and pharmacists

Triumph of common sense

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—As a consultant neonatologist in a neonatal intensivecare unit I am delighted that the Department of Health has atlast seen sense with respect to nurse prescribing.¹ This nowmeans that the neonatal nurse practitioners who form 40% ofour first line "medical" team on the unit will have almost thesame prescribing powers as the senior house officers who formthe remaining 60%. If, in the context of a hospital, the departmentextended this permission to "controlled" and unlicensed drugsI would be even more pleased.

Credit: PETER MENZEL/SPL

What currently stands in the way of this progress is article12 of the Prescription Only Medicines (Human Use) Order 1997,which forbids any pharmacist from supplying any prescriptiononly medicine except in accordance with the written directionsof a doctor or dentist in the course of the business of thehospital.

Currently a dentist or a . . . [Full text of this article]

Sam Richmond, consultant neonatologist

Sunderland Royal Hospital, Sunderland SR4 7TP sam.richmond@talk21.com