Health care professionals' views on hospital pharmacist prescribing in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Abstract The published evidence supports a multidisciplinary approach to drug therapy management. Pharmacist prescribing has already been introduced successfully in the United States, with good clinical outcome measures and high levels of doctor and patient satisfaction. In our study, questionnaires were sent to 195 doctors, 200 nurses and all 87 pharmacists working at five hospitals in Birmingham, to identify attitudes towards pharmacist-written prescriptions and pharmacist prescribing. The combined response rate was 57.5 per cent. Few doctors (4.3 per cent) and nurses (5.2 per cent) responding had any experience of prescriptions written by a pharmacist, but all of those with such experience agreed that they had found it helpful. Support for pharmacist-written prescriptions and pharmacist prescribing ranged from 43.6 per cent to 94 per cent, depending on the scenario described and the profession of the responder. Overall, a high proportion (78.7 per cent to 86.1 per cent) of doctors and nurses responding agreed that it would be useful if pharmacists were permitted to write prescriptions and prescribe drug treatment, though a majority believed that this should only include pharmacists with postgraduate education/training and routinely attached to the clinical area in question. Important issues identified as possible barriers to pharmacist prescribing in the UK include pharmacist willingness to accept this new role, education/training, familiarity with the patient, communication between health care professionals, professional and legal accountability and resource implications. If further training/education was made available for those who felt a need for it, 98.5 per cent of pharmacists stated that they would be happy to write prescriptions for existing therapy, and 95.5 per cent would also be happy to initiate/prescribe drug treatment. The future role of the hospital pharmacist in drug therapy management is explored. The perceived barriers to the introduction of pharmacist prescribing are not insurmountable. If tackled appropriately, the introduction of pharmacist-written prescriptions and pharmacist prescribing is likely to prove a valuable contribution to patient care.