New Prescribing Rights
04-12-2007 Back to news index
In a move which is likely to receive official backing, a key government advisory group will support moves to allow optometrists to get independent prescribing rights, sources believe. It is thought that the Commission on Human Medicines’ advice will be that optometrists should be allowed to work towards prescribing medicines independently.
The Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) gives government ministers advice on the safety, quality and efficacy of human medicinal products.
Last summer it took in advice on whether some optometrists should be allowed to prescribe independently. That advice was positive and the CHM has told the Department of Health that suitably trained optometrists should, in future, be allowed to prescribe some licensed medicine for ocular conditions.
Nevertheless, the optometrists involved will be limited to prescribing within their own area of expertise, as agreed with a multi-disciplinary team, and an employer.
Before that, however, the practitioners who want to be involved in independent prescribing will need extra training. The move follows that which have been adopted for nurse and pharmacist prescribers.
This potentially final go-ahead, has been a long time in coming about. It was in 1999 that independent prescribing rights for optometrists were first recommended through the Crown Report.
Dr June Crown (left) and her colleagues recommended optometrists be professionally responsible for the initial assessment and diagnosis of the patient, and devising a treatment plan for an individual.
The review followed an interim report the previous year on health professional group protocols, which identified best practice and made recommendations on the extension of nurse prescribing.