4 SP
Specified groups of Allied Health Professionals can access the Supplementary Prescribing Course.
Supplementary prescribing is “A voluntary prescribing partnership between an independent prescriber (doctor or dentist) and a supplementary prescriber, to implement an agreed patient-specific clinical management plan(CMP) with the patient’s agreement” (DOH)
Once they have completed the course and have the appropriate annotation on their professional registers, Supplementary Prescribers can prescribe for any clinical condition and any drug in the BNF including Controlled Drugs (as long as it is included in the Clinical Management Plan). This can include unlicensed and ‘off-label’ drugs (i.e. drugs used outside their product licensing), ‘black triangle’ drugs, and drugs marked ‘less suitable for prescribing’ in the 'British National Formulary' (BNF).
Supplementary Prescribers should not supplementary prescribe for clinical conditions outside their area of expertise or any medicine that they do not feel competent to supplementary prescribe.
Following Consultation, legislative amendments are awaited which will give full access to PIPs to prescribing Controlled Drugs within their competence.