New professional guidance for independent prescribers

McCann et al (2012) note that although prescribing had long been the sole preserve of doctors, the Cumberlege Report of 1986 introduced the concept of non-medical prescribing, and a subsequent crown report recommended extending prescribing authority to non-medical professionals such as pharmacists. Interestingly, it was a decade ago that the findings of a Northern Irish study undertaken by McCann et al (2012) in the areas of hypertension cardiovascular/diabetes management and anticoagulation added further ‘to the evidence that pharmacist prescribing is widely accepted, and patients positively perceive pharmacist prescribing’.

More recently, in a Jordanian study, when Alhamad et al (2021) questioned 578 members of the public on their ‘perceptions about pharmacists' educational and prescribing role, and the medication delivery service provided during the COVID-19 outbreak’, they concluded that the public endorsed the positive impact of pharmacists during the pandemic. In a UK study that explored pharmacist prescribing for patients with chronic kidney disease, Alraiisi et al (2021) not only found enthusiasm among pharmacists ‘for the future development of prescribing practice including further establishment of clinics and taking responsibility for groups of patients’, but interviewees also indicated an awareness of systems for evaluating their prescribing activity.