Prescribing within NHS Scotland requires authorisation by the NHS board within which the person normally practices. For prescribing on a form from the GP10 series, the prescriber will be issued with a prescribing code and suitable prescription forms.²¹

Community Pharmacy Scotland advises newly qualified community pharmacy IPs, once the GPhC has made the annotation to the Register, to contact the Community Pharmacy Lead at the relevant NHS Health Board. They will order prescription pads (the process may take up to eight weeks) and will also provide information about local arrangements and requirements for sign off. As these form part of the Board Governance of the service, they must be completed before starting service delivery.²²

In Wales, the NHS PIPS scheme requires completion of antimicrobial stewardship for prescribers training and annual active basic life support certification as part of the accreditation process. The IP pharmacist must also have prescription pads with the pharmacy premises’ J number (each J number is specific to a pharmacy) before providing the service.¹⁰

For exceptional circumstances, such as an emergency booking, a locum pharmacist IP who does not have a J number linked to the pharmacy premises, will be able to use a ‘locum pad, provided the pharmacy is accredited for PIPS and the regular pharmacist IP has a J number.

Pharmacist IPs in Wales can access the IP module on Choose Pharmacy system to record consultations resulting in a prescription, and not just for PIPS, with the system generating a summary letter to be sent to the patient’s GP. However, some pharmacists use GP systems to record consultations.^10,23