The first pharmacists to qualify as supplementary prescribers in England were today welcomed by Health Minister Rosie Winterton during a visit to Bradford University.

Rosie Winterton said:

"I am delighted that the first supplementary prescribing pharmacists have now qualified and that they will soon be bringing their expertise to the aid of both patients and doctors alike.

"Pharmacists are a highly skilled, well trained, but often an under used resource within the NHS. As supplementary prescribers, pharmacists will use their skills to help many patients with chronic conditions such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, asthma and hypertension.

"Extending prescribing responsibilities to pharmacists will make getting the right medicine easier and more convenient than ever before and will help to reduce the burden on GPs by giving them more time to deal with acutely ill patients.

"Supplementary prescribing pharmacists will work closely with the doctor and the patient to ensure the effective delivery of a clinical management plan that is tailored to individual patients' needs."

Dr Gill Hawksworth MBE, President of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, echoed the Minister's comments saying:

"Supplementary prescribing will enable patients to benefit even further from pharmacists' knowledge and skills. Supplementary prescribing will really help increase public confidence in pharmacists' ability to perform a more clinical role at the front line of healthcare.

'The people who have qualified here today are among the first of a new kind of pharmacist who will be working more closely than ever before with doctors and patients and I look forward to many more pharmacists qualifying as supplementary prescribers in the future."

Prescribing for Healthcare Professionals Course Leader at the University of Bradford Jasmine Comrie said:

"The University's School of Health Studies and the School of Pharmacy have been excited by this challenging development - at the leading edge of changing the way services are delivered. We are delighted to see the cohort graduate from the course."

Notes to editor

1. A pharmacist supplementary prescriber will work in partnership with an independent prescriber (ie doctor or dentist) and a patient to provide and implement a Clinical Management Plan where appropriate to the patients needs. Supplementary prescribing is likely to be most useful in dealing with long-term medical conditions such as asthma diabetes or coronary heart disease, or with long-term health needs, such as anti-coagulation. As a partner in their own care the patient would be involved at all stages including whether part of their care is best delivered via supplementary prescribing.

2. Supplementary prescribing requires a close partnership between a doctor and pharmacist as well as access to the patient's medical record and access to a prescribing budget. The obvious candidates in pharmacy in the short term are pharmacists who already have close links with doctors, for instance pharmacists who work at health centres or in GP practices, and hospital pharmacists. Some community pharmacists already do sessional work at GP surgeries, so they will be obvious candidates too.

3. Pharmacists are able to be trained as supplementary prescribers from 14 Higher Education Institutions around the country. The following universities have supplementary prescribing programmes available:

University of Bath

University of Brighton

University of Bradford

Homerton College, Cambridge

University of Derby

University College Chester

Keele University

King's College London

University of Leeds

Liverpool John Moores University

London Metropolitan University

London South Bank University

University of Portsmouth

University of Sunderland

The courses are accredited by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. Pharmacists are required to have 25 days additional training plus at least 12 days supervised practice and have to pass an exam before they are able to become supplementary prescribers.

4. There are around 20,000 pharmacists practising in the community and in hospitals in England. Supplementary prescribing is the first step towards independent prescribing. Informal discussions with the profession are beginning on independent prescribing.

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