Published 27 November 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4835
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4835

Feature

Health Policy

Handing over the prescription pad

Nigel Hawkes, freelance journalist

1 London

nigel.hawkes1@btinternet.com

Despite doctors’ objections, other health professions are getting increasing rights to prescribe. Nigel Hawkes investigates

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

The entitlement to write prescriptions was once the doctor’s prerogative. It signified knowledge, authority, and the exercise of a power sanctioned by social and professional consent.

Today, nearly 10 years after the NHS Plan promised to expand the role of nurses, prescribing has been dragged from the grasp of a reluctant medical profession. Nurses and pharmacists who are appropriately qualified now have access to the whole of the British National Formulary. Later this year, they will also be permitted to prescribe unlicensed medicines for the first time. Physiotherapists, podiatrists, and radiographers already have some prescribing rights and could soon have more.

This change has happened piecemeal and, in the eyes of many doctors, without adequate safeguards. The profession has opposed every step in the process, many doctors claiming that it is unsafe to allow unqualified people to prescribe powerful medicines on the basis of a few weeks’ training. In . . . [Full text of this article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?

Related external webpages:

Follow the debate on nurse prescribing at doc2doc.bmj.com, BMJ Group's professional networking site for doctors worldwide

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Prescribing - what about retired doctors?
John Eggleton
bmj.com, 17 Jan 2010 [Full text]
Re: Prescribing - what about retired doctors?"Judge not, that ye shall not be judged."
Harry Hall
bmj.com, 19 Jan 2010 [Full text]
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ