Press Release
Independent prescribing for chiropodists/podiatrists and physiotherapists
24 July 2012
The Department of Health has announced that medicines legislation will be amended to allow independent prescribing responsibilities to be extended to appropriately trained chiropodists/podiatrists and physiotherapists.
Independent prescribing is prescribing by a practitioner (such as a doctor, dentist, or nurse) who is responsible for the assessment of patients and for decisions about the patient’s clinical management.
Of the professions we regulate, chiropodists/podiatrists, physiotherapists and radiographers can currently complete training to become supplementary prescribers. Supplementary prescribers can only prescribe a medicine where the medicine is listed in an agreed clinical management plan. This plan sets out the care to be provided to a patient and is agreed with the patient. By contrast, independent prescribers have greater autonomy as they can prescribe any medicine within their competence and knowledge, without being limited to the medicines listed in the clinical management plan.
As a regulator, we will play an important role in making sure that chiropodists/podiatrists and physiotherapists are able to act as independent prescribers safely and effectively. We will set standards for independent prescribing, approve education programmes delivering training in independent prescribing and mark on our Register where individuals have completed the appropriate training.
Chiropodists/podiatrists and physiotherapists must complete appropriate training and have their entry on our Register annotated (or marked) before they are able to start prescribing independently. Chiropodists/podiatrists and physiotherapists who are currently practising as supplementary prescribers will need to complete additional training and be annotated on the Register before they can act as independent prescribers.
We will launch a consultation in autumn on new standards for prescribing practice, to take account of these changes. We anticipate that, subject to the change in medicines legislation, education programmes will start to deliver training in independent prescribing in autumn 2013
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