Voicepiece
This month chief health professions officer Kay East talks about the emerging opportunities for AHPs through the new GMS contract and the expansion of supplementary prescribing.
In this month's bulletin, we highlight the importance of the new guidance on implementing the GMS contract. This is such a significant development for primary care that I wish to encourage all of you to become familiar with it. We must recognise the impact it will have on AHPs.
Those of you who have read the Chief Nursing Officer's letter last month will know that nurse prescribing has come a long way since 1994. AHPs are involved in the supply and administration of medicines and we are now hoping to develop this as we move towards the expansion of Patient Group Directions for speech and language therapists, orthotists and prosthetists, occupational therapists and dieticians. Responses to the consultation process in July were positive and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) plans to lay regulations in March to put changes in place.
Physiotherapists, podiatrists and radiographers have been able to use PGDs for many years. Building on their expertise will enable other professionals to better meet the needs of their patients.
The development of supplementary prescribing will allow them, through a patient-specific clinical management plan and in partnership with a doctor, to prescribe virtually all the medicines doctors prescribe.
A group has been established which brings together the professional bodies, higher educational institutes and other stakeholders, including the National Prescribing Centre, to develop an outline curriculum framework that can be delivered nationally. This has been a positive experience and has really demonstrated how well the different professions can work together to develop a shared educational framework.
The Department of Health and the MHRA will be consulting on the proposals to expand supplementary prescribing to these three professions in the spring when the outline curriculum framework is more developed. The Committee on Safety of Medicines and ministers will then consider the outcome of that consultation.
This is another step to help the NHS provide more accessible and convenient services, with shorter waits, more choice and a better patient experience. This will help AHPs provide a more responsive service which meets the needs of an ageing population who have more chronic conditions and increased expectations of the NHS. These are changing times but all these initiatives contribute to the continuing development of the skills and knowledge that AHPs need to support the development of their practice.
More on AHP prescribing at
