Cascade Summer/Autumn 2012 - Plymouth Hospitals
Cascade Summer/Autumn 2012 - Plymouth Hospitals
Cascade Summer/Autumn 2012 - Plymouth Hospitals
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cascade_summer_<strong>2012</strong>_1.5:<strong>Cascade</strong>_Winter_2011 23/10/<strong>2012</strong> 13:46 Page 7<br />
7News from around the Trust<br />
Non-medical<br />
Prescribing: A Definite<br />
Change for the Better<br />
by Jonathan Palmer<br />
Over the past 20 years or so<br />
there have been massive<br />
changes to the way we manage<br />
the patient’s journey as they<br />
move along their disease<br />
trajectory. Indeed the way we<br />
work today would in many ways<br />
be completely ‘alien’ to a time<br />
travelling health professional from<br />
the late 80’s or early 90’s. Take<br />
for instance the issue of<br />
prescribing; prior to 1992 the only people<br />
who could legally prescribe in the UK were<br />
doctors, veterinary surgeons and dentists.<br />
Jonathon Palmer and some of the non-medical prescribing team<br />
The first changes to this prescribing ‘monopoly’ occurred in the early and mid 1990s when district nurses<br />
and health visitors were authorised to prescribe a very limited number of medicines from the Community<br />
Practitioners Formulary. Since the mid 2000s and increasingly over the past few years there are a<br />
number of Registered Health Professionals who can legally prescribe a wide range of drugs in an almost<br />
identical way to their medical colleagues. There are now in the region of 25 non-medical prescribers<br />
working within <strong>Plymouth</strong> <strong>Hospitals</strong>. The majority are nurses with a small but increasing number of<br />
pharmacists. Non-medical prescribers will have completed a year-long degree level course and work in<br />
amongst others paediatrics, neonatology, pain management, palliative care and thoracic medicine. Nonmedical<br />
prescribers can “prescribe timely, effective treatments for patients with specialist health needs”.<br />
This obviously benefits patients and the organisation. As well as providing more rapid access to<br />
medicines, non-medical prescribing has been shown to facilitate “more flexible patient orientated care”,<br />
“time savings” and “improved service efficiency”. Over the next few years as more training takes place<br />
there will be a growing number of non-medical prescribers both locally and across the NHS as whole. In<br />
the meantime further changes to legislation will enable physiotherapists and podiatrists to take on this<br />
exciting role.<br />
You can find out more about non-medical prescribing and its role with the NHS at:<br />
http://www.npc.nhs.uk/non_medical/<br />
A Big Thank You to Amanda and Sarah<br />
Colin Putt from the Specialist Engineering Workshop in<br />
MEMS got in touch with <strong>Cascade</strong> recently...<br />
“I work in the Specialist Engineering workshop in MEMS, I<br />
am also the Officer in Charge of <strong>Plymouth</strong> Young Offenders<br />
Attendance Centre and recently staff from Derriford have<br />
delivered two excellent sessions at our centre on a<br />
Saturday. Amanda Clements delivered a superb session on<br />
drugs and alcohol and the effects on the body, this was a<br />
very important session because a lot of our attendees have<br />
issues relating to substance abuse.<br />
This session was followed two weeks later with a talk on<br />
resuscitation and emergency treatment delivered by Sarah<br />
Dormor. Both of these sessions were professionally<br />
delivered by these two dedicated and obviously committed<br />
staff to a, what most people consider a difficult target group.<br />
“The feedback from the young people, BRILLIANT. Thank<br />
you once again to Amanda and Sarah.”<br />
HCA Nicola Orme found the perfect<br />
way to keep warm - thanks to a<br />
considerate firefighter - during a recent<br />
fire alarm at the Royal Eye Infirmary!