Physios and podiatrists to gain new prescribing powers
pharmafile | July 25, 2012 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Department of Health, GPs, Physios, government, prescribing
Physiotherapists and podiatrists are set to gain new prescribing powers by 2014.
Ministers are looking to amend medicines legislation so that podiatrists and physiotherapists can prescribe drugs independently – they currently need a GP to underwrite any prescriptions they make.
The Department of Health has already consulted on these proposed changes, and it is now looking to see these new powers realised by 2014.
If the amendments are ratified in Parliament, qualified and annotated physiotherapists and podiatrists will be able to prescribe any licensed medicine, provided it falls within their area scopes of practice.
Health minister Lord Howe said: “By introducing these changes, we aim to make the best use of their skills and allow patients to benefit from a faster and more effective service.”
Dr Helena Johnson, of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, said the move would ‘hugely improve’ the care physios could provide.
“Patients will now receive a more streamlined and efficient service, meaning they get the medicines they need more immediately,” she added.
This comes several months after the government made changes to the Misuse of Drugs Regulations. This now allows all qualified nurses and pharmacists to prescribe controlled drugs like morphine, diamorphine and prescription strength co-codamol.
The government hopes to extend prescribing powers outside of the traditional realm of GPs and hospital doctors, so that patients can have quicker access to drugs without having to book extra appointments to get the drugs they need.
This will also open up new prescribing leads for the pharma industry, and could be an opportunity to build new relationships.
Ben Adams
Related Content
Summer COVID cases set to reach 2 million with 10 million isolating
Analysis from the Guardian has found that over two million people could contract COVID-19 this …
Over 600,000 positive COVID tests genomically sequenced in UK
The UK has genomically sequenced more than 600,000 positive COVID-19 test, it was announced on …
Survey reveals over 2 million people impacted by long COVID in UK
A recent survey from Imperial College London has revealed that over 2 million people in …
