Clause 60 - Extension of prescribing rights
Health and Social Care Bill
3:00 pm
Mr Desmond Swayne (New Forest West, Conservative)
I have a number of questions for the Minister. First, how will the advisory body be constituted? Will it comprise members of the professions that are to obtain prescribing rights under the regulations? The Royal College of Nursing wants to know why midwives and nurses are not included in the list in amendment No. 213. He will be aware that the limited content of the current nurse prescribers formulary has proved frustrating, and that the royal college wants the full British national formulary to be accessible to all licensed nurse prescribers.
The electronic mail message that I received from the royal college states:
``The RCN calls on the Government to ensure that nurses who have specialist training can prescribe controlled drugs as well as having access to an increased range of other prescription only medicines. This would mean, for example, specialist pain control nurses could prescribe controlled drugs such as diamorphine for patients with a clinical need.''
That description seems consistent with what the Minister said about different groups with different expertise being able to prescribe in a particular way. Will he respond to that point when he answers the debate?
Concern has been expressed about the degree of restriction that regulations may place on legitimate prescribing powers. If regulations are to specify in detail what drugs can be prescribed and in what circumstances, they will rapidly become cumbersome and out of date. It will be difficult for dispensing pharmacists to keep abreast of changes in products and what is available for patients. The benefits that those patients may obtain from those products, and the most up-to-date clinical practices will be constrained by regulation . How quickly can we expect the regulations to be reviewed to accommodate pharmaceutical developments?
There must be absolute clarity about where clinical responsibility lies. Perhaps the Minister will say something about that. Will it lie with those who gain the new prescribing rights? The Minister commented on the independence of those people, but the implications were not clear. Will the new prescribing rights be independent of the existing prescribers—general practitioners and consultants—or will they be dependent on an existing prescriber, who will take full responsibility?
What safeguards does the Minister plan to provide to ensure communication between multiple prescribers, to avoid interactions between the drugs prescribed for a patient by several eligible professionals?