Information & Advice

British National Formulary distribution

Nurse Independent Prescribers should receive a British National Formulary (BNF) during their training and then twice yearly thereafter from the Non Medical Prescribing lead of their local NHS trust.  In the case of nurses employed by a GP practice, or nurses prescribing for NHS patients and who are employed by non NHS organisations, the local PCT will include them within their numbers.  Likewise Supplementary Prescribers including Physiotherapists, Podiatrists and Radiographers providing services to NHS patients, should receive a BNF during training and then twice yearly thereafter.  Salaried Pharmacists and those Pharmacists employed by a Primary Care Trust should receive a six monthly BNF.  If they do not they can phone the Department of Health Publication orderline Tel: 0300 123 1002 (Minicom 0300 123 1003) and register for six monthly deliveries.  All  Community Practitioner Formulary Nurse Prescribers should receive an updated copy of the Nurse Prescribers Formulary which is issued every 2 years.  They are not eligible to receive a six monthly BNF.

Clinical Governance

Clinical governance is the system through which NHS organisations are accountable for continuously improving the quality of their services and safeguarding high standards of care, by creating an environment in which clinical excellence will flourish.  All healthcare providing organisations must be mindful of their responsibility in terms of clinical governance.  Those organisations who employ Non Medical Prescribers must ensure that they have addressed the clinical governance issues clearly.  The developent of a Non Medical Prescribing Clinical Governance Framework is recommended.  If you are interested in assistance with the development of such a framework then please contact us.

Building a Business Case

If you are looking at securing commission from the NHS to deliver a service with includes Non Medical Prescribing, we can assist with identification of key stakeholders and provide you with guidance to help you build your business case.  In PRINCE2 language a Business Case is used to define the information that justifies the setting up, continuation or termination of a project or service development.  It answers the question: "Why this project / service development should be done".  If you are interested in assistance with building a business case then please contact us.

Audit of existing arrangements

If you have invested in training staff to become Non Medical Prescribers, but either they are not using their qualification as fully as they are able, or you do not have the necessary infrastructure to support their prescribing practice and Non Medical Prescribing is not yet embedded into your organisation, we can undertake an audit of your existing arrangement.  We can make recommendations to assist you to improve the standard and quality of the service.  This will result in improved safetly for your patients, your staff and your organisation.  It will address the clinical governance aspects in relation to Non Medical Prescribing.  If you would like an audit of existing arrangements then please contact us.

For Organisations who do not yet have any Non Medical Prescribers

If you have not yet taken the opportunity to develop services for your patients which includes Non Medical Prescribing you might like some assistance in exploring the feasibility of Nurse and Pharmacist Independent Prescribing and Allied Health Professional Supplementary Prescribing.  Consideration should be made that an organisation could be proved negligent if a patient had a delay in receiving their medication due to there being no Non Medical Prescribing service (and the development of the service was deemed feasible) and that the delay in receiving the medication resulted in harming that patient.  This could apply to NHS and non NHS organisations.  If you would like assistance in exploring the feasibility of developing Non Medical Prescribing within your organisation please contact us..