Transcript Prescription Writing

Prescribing in Practice
Part 2e
Licensing, Legal Categories and
Group Activity
Licensing of drugs
• Previously known as Product licence nowMarketing Authorisations
• Before a new product can be marketed the company
has to produce evidence of safety and efficacy’.
• The licence also restricts availability by defining the
legal category of the drug.
• All proprietary medicines will therefore bear a
Marketing Authorisation number and a legal status
code.
Legal categories of Medicines
• Prescription Only Medicines – POMs
• No person may administer a POM to another person
(except to himself) unless he is acting in accordance
with the directions of an appropriate practitioner.
This is with the exception of medical emergencies
for the purpose of saving life in an emergency and
applies to certain medicines e.g. epinepherine
• Doctors can administer POMs without a prescription
though it is good practice to keep adequate records.
• NMPs should avoid administration of a POM without
a prescription or PGD.
Legal categories of Medicines (Cont.)
• General Sale List Medicines. (GSL)
Can be sold in supermarkets, garages etc.
Legal categories of Medicines
cont…
• Pharmacy Medicines (P medicines)
• Can be bought in a pharmacy providing
that the pharmacist is there to supervise
the sale.
• Pharmacists have a legal obligation to
refuse the sale if they feel that the sale
would compromise safety or contribute to
abuse.
• P medicine legislation is likely to change in
2012 so watch out for this
Hospitals and the Medicines Act
• All medicines provided to in patients are
“de facto POM’s” this is because hospital
pharmacies cannot sell medicines and
supply is regulated through hospital
policies.
Label 30
• Do not take with any other paracetamol
products
To be used on all containers of dispensed
preparations containing paracetamol
• BNF 60(2010)
Cautionary Labels
• Can be used to give more detail that you
feel strongly should be on the packaging
of the product
• A prescriber may feel on a specific
occasion that a cautionary label should not
be used- can you think of one that may be
put on by the pharmacist? If you do not
want the label to be used you must
endorse your prescription with-’NCL’ but
then the exact wording you want to
replace this has to be specified Source BNF60 2010
Group Activity
• In interprofessional groups you will
complete an activity reviewing 3 written
prescriptions
• You will then develop a poster which
promotes principles for safe prescription
writing practice
Further reading
• Dean B. Barber N. Schachter M (2000) What is a prescribing
error? Quality Health Care 9 pp232-237
• Reddy B. (2006) Prescription writing standards: why they are
important Nurse Prescribing vol.4 No.8 pp330-335
• Maintaining competency in prescribing: An outline framework to
help allied health professional supplementary prescribers
• National Prescribing Centre (2004) Maintaining competency in
prescribing: An outline framework to help allied health
professional supplementary prescribers. Available on line @
http://www.npc.co.uk/maintain_comp_in_prescribing.htm
• Prescribing Self Tests online:
http://learning.north.londonmet.ac.uk/prescribing/prescribing_exe
rcises.htm
References
British National Formulary www.bnf.org.uk
Chadwick P, Stuart L, Fox M, Walley A,
Morris L, Ashton-Mort ,S and McLennon, J
( 20070 An audit to improve the care of the
diabetic foot Wounds UK vol. 3, no.2
pp73-77
This work was produced as part of the TIGER project and funded by JISC and
the HEA in 2011. For further information see:
http://www.northampton.ac.uk/tiger.
This work by TIGER Project is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a
work at tiger.library.dmu.ac.uk.
The TIGER project has sought to ensure content of the materials comply with
a CC BY NC SA licence. Some material links to third party sites and may use
a different licence, please check before using. The TIGER project nor any of
its partners endorse these sites and cannot be held responsible for their
content. Any logos or trademarks in the resource are exclusive property of
their owners and their appearance is not an endorsement by the TIGER
project.