A historic day for nursing
Five years after calls for specially qualified nurse prescribers to be able to prescribe a greater variety of Controlled Drugs, the Home Office have now laid the relevant legislation to allow this to happen, with the changes coming into effect on the 23rd of April 2012 . This will mean that in excess of 20,000 Nurse Independent prescribers in the UK, who have undertaken a specialist degree level course and after rigorous assessment hold a separate registered qualification will be able to prescribe from the same list of medicines as Drs within their speciality and competence. A truly historic development for the Nursing profession.
These specially qualified nurses have been able to prescribe most medicines that Drs can for a number of years but could only prescribe many of these Controlled Drugs through a formalised partnership (called Supplementary Prescribing) with a Dr or Dentist . A short list of certain Controlled Drugs have been prescribable independent of this process for specific conditions such as Palliative Care, trauma, post-operative pain and cardiac pain, however these legal restrictions have caused a multitude of problems for both Nurses and their patients. Four years ago, there was a public consultation which received overwhelming support from all quarters and ministers agreed that Nurses should be able to prescribe these medicines as independent practitioners.
Professor Matt Griffiths said ‘Nurses have been safely prescribing these medicines for a number of years, in fact before we reached the public consultation more than 1 million Controlled Drug prescriptions had been prescribed by nurse prescribers. It’s the legal mechanism that has been frustrating here for both Nurses and their patients. The formal process of supplementary prescribing many of these medicines to date has meant delays to patients receiving the medicines and therefore in some cases extended periods or pain.’
He went on to say ‘ Nurses have been extremely responsible in how they have developed Nurse Prescribing for over 20 years. They have shown that they are competent and responsible and their prescribing is both cost and clinically effective. Prescriber training and regulation ensures that patient safety and welfare remain the most important issue. Nurse prescribers were once accused of trying to be mini-doctors, but the evidence that we have seen through research in this area is that nurse prescribers aren’t mini-doctors but maxi-nurses and this legislation will support us in ensuring our patients receive the best care. ‘
These Regulations amend the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 (the “2001 Regulations”) to allow a nurse independent prescriber and a pharmacist independent prescriber (defined in regulation 2(1) of the 2001 Regulations, as amended by regulation 3(b)) to prescribe, possess, supply, offer to supply, administer and give directions for the administration of any controlled drug specified in Schedules 2 to 5 of the 2001 Regulations, but not in relation to cocaine, diamorphine or dipipanone as regards persons addicted to these drugs otherwise than for the purpose of treating organic disease or injury suffered by such persons. The amendments also allow a nurse independent prescriber and a pharmacist independent prescriber to supply certain articles for administering or preparing controlled drugs.
The full Statutory Instrument is available to view via -
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/973/made
