NURSES may soon be able to prescribe drugs. The Health and Social Services Department will ask the States to give it the power to add to the people who can write one.

The move has been given a cautious welcome by the local division of the British Medical Association.

If the new law was passed, the department would allow senior nurses in hospitals to prescribe drugs for patients.

‘We are keen to extend the prescription powers to senior nurses because they have the training and skills to do that,’ said Health minister Peter Roffey.

‘It is frustrating if the law prevents them from using their skills and this is part of the reason why staff can be difficult to retain.

‘The nurses will have a limited range of powers. But giving them the prescription responsibility for their patients, for certain medicines and for the areas in which they specialise, will add flexibility to the system because a doctor will no longer necessarily have to be called in.’

Dr Brian Parkin, the local press spokesman for the BMA, said he supported the principle provided adequate and sensible safety guidelines were in place on which drugs were prescribed and for whom.

‘We would be pleased to work with the nurses and the department to draw up appropriate guidelines and directions for that,’ he said.

‘As with all these things, the devil is in the detail. It is in the detail that these things succeed or fail.’

Nurses already relied on their expertise to make decisions in some areas, such as community nurses advising doctors on what sort of medicated dressings should be prescribed for patients, he said.

The move would save on time and administration and could address areas of unnecessary bureaucracy, including nurses not being able to prescribe paracetamol when adults could buy the drug themselves.

‘In principle, it’s good and should enhance nurses’ professional understanding and autonomy,’ said Dr Parkin.

States prescribing advisor Paul McManus said the extension to nurses’ powers would bring benefits for patients and staff.

‘The UK experience has proved very positive.

‘Although in general Bailiwick residents do not have the same problems in accessing health services as they do there, failing to follow important changes in the roles of health professionals may affect our ability to recruit and retain quality staff,’ he said.

‘When the changes are implemented here, more staff will be able to fully utilise their skills to prescribe medicines to the patients for whom they are caring,’ he said.

‘This will help doctors because they will no longer be solely responsible for all prescriptions. We will be using people and resources in the most effective way for the benefit of the patient.’

He added that the proposals would apply initially only to hospital nurses because any changes for community workers would require approval from their employer.

Deputy Roffey said extending prescription power had been under consideration during the last few years but although UK schemes had proved successful, neither the department nor its predecessor, the Board of Health, had been able to act because of local law.

The legislation was being drafted and although the department had hoped to bring it to the States in July, that might not happen until the autumn.

Deputy Roffey denied that if the States approved the new law it would lead to the department making wholesale prescription changes or handing out powers on an ad hoc basis.

‘We are advised by the medical advisory committee and in fact our motivation would be to be cautious, which is why any extension of powers would be within given parameters,’ he said.