Abstract:

Health policies are constantly evoluting all over Europe to provide optimal healthcare to patient. Recently, a new category of prescriber, the Pharmacist Independent Prescriber, was introduced. Independent prescribing is prescribing by a practitioner eg. doctor, dentist, nurse, pharmacist or optometrist responsible and accountable for the assessment of patients with undiagnosed and diagnosed conditions and for decisions about the clinical management, including prescribing.

Once qualified, they will be able to prescribe any licensed medicine for any medical condition within their competence except for controlled drugs.

The seminar will look at the background required to practice independent prescribing and give feedback on first experiences of pharmacist practitioners. What is the added value for the patient and the citizen? What are the difficulties? What are the perspectives in Europe?

Teaching Goals:

The presentation will focus on:

• describing the health context of independent prescribing
• presenting the legal and professional responsibility of pharmacist
• explaining the importance of communication between the prescribing partners, and the need for access to shared patient records

Learning objectives:

the delegates should be able to:

• understand whose pharmacists are eligible to be trained as prescribers
• describe what is independent prescribing about