The President of the Pharmaceutical Society NI, Dr Jim Livingstone, has welcomed the introduction of new Regulations in relation to the annotation of pharmacists as Independent Prescribers.
Speaking today Dr Livingstone said, “Since identifying that specific regulations were not in place for the annotation of pharmacists as Independent Prescribers, Council has worked tirelessly to see these introduced. Unfortunately due to the collapse of the NI Assembly this process has taken longer than anticipated, but we are grateful that the Regulations have now been made, approved and signed off. This enables us, again, to annotate a pharmacist’s entry on the register, recognising those duly qualified, as Independent Prescribers.”
The Regulations were approved on Thursday 14th September 2017 by the Department of Health; they will come into operation on 9th October 2017.
After this date the Pharmaceutical Society NI will resume making annotations for those who are qualified and apply.
In conclusion Dr Livingstone acknowledged the unavoidable delay in processing Independent Prescriber applications due to the lack of specific regulations and apologised for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Should you require any further information regarding registering as an Independent prescriber please click here and visit Registering as a prescriber on the organisation’s website.