Prescribing

The GPhC says it will take steps from 2021 onwards to support all pharmacists who are already on the register to train as independent prescribers.

The number of antidepressant drugs prescribed in England is on the rise according to new NHSBSA data.

Community pharmacy contractors in Scotland will receive a monthly fee of £2,000 for offering the new Pharmacy First Plus service, it has been revealed. 

Scripts written by doctors registered in EEA countries and dispensed in the UK now zero-rated.

Community pharmacies in Scotland have been offered a three-year funding package for the first time.

The General Pharmaceutical Council’s clampdown on rogue online pharmacies appears to be gathering pace.

A new bill set before Parliament today aims to extend prescribing powers to more health professions.

The government reveals plans to “increase the range of professions able to prescribe low-risk medicines."

Prescribing by pharmacist independent prescribers rose 55 per cent between 2017-18 and 2018-19.

European authorities have for the first time approved a cannabis-based medicine for use in severe childhood epilepsy.

NHS England approves prescribing curbs on seven more items.

Tuesday July 5 I am at a Southwark commissioners’ meeting this evening. It has been called by members of the local GP federation. They wish to learn more about our LPC’s service-provider model with a view to working for mutual benefit. There are suggestions of operating through Local Care Networks in the presentations. GP federations have been funded to assist with their set up, whereas our provider company has not. A key difference is that GPs seem to have used their funds to create various remunerated positions and are looking to make them sustainable through additional funding of commissioned services. We have, on the other hand, started a low-cost model without extensive infrastructure or office facilities, opting instead to pay for administration costs through top-slicing monies received for services. This, to me, seems to be a more efficient model than PCT-like administrations with associated costs and red tape.

We take a look at recent developments in the specials market

RPS wants more prescribing mentors to allow more pharmacists to qualify as prescribers

RPS guidance on specials prescribing is based around five key principles

Antibiotic prescribing down 7.9 per cent in 2015 compared to 2014

Have you seen the iconic recruitment poster from the First World War: Lord Kitchener, with his waxed moustache looking directly at you with the caption ‘Your Country Needs You’? I was reminded of it by a recent survey conducted by Pharmacy Voice which found that nine in 10 GPs would like more help from us in making sure that medicines prescribed for the over-75s were necessary and being taken properly ...

BMA expresses concern at new requirement for all doctors to pass prescribing test before qualifying