Pharmacists have been prescribing in the UK since 2003, following the success of nurse prescribing. The review of prescribing, supply and administration of medicines (the second Crown Report) in 1999 proposed that new groups of professionals could apply for permission to prescribe in specific clinical areas. Pharmacists were among a number of professional groups, including nurses, midwives, physiotherapists, podiatrists, optometrists and radiographers, that were considered for enhancements to their prescribing rights. Pharmacists were the second group of health professionals to become non-medical prescribers, following nurses.
Kocić and Stewart argued that internationally, 24% of pharmacists were already undertaking ‘some form’ of prescribing; the UK approach is to provide a legal framework for roles that clinical pharmacists already undertake.
Wasim Baqir, David Miller, and Graeme Richardson
European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy
September 8, 2012
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