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Many
doctors worry about translating a private prescription onto an
FP10. Can it/should it be done?
1. Any doctor who signs a prescription is legally responsible for what he provides in that script. So there is no difference between writing a translated script to repeating any consultant script from an NHS patient. So be sure you know what you understand the drug you will be prescribing. 2. Does the patient need the prescribed medication? In a court of law it would be difficult to defend a refusal to prescribe having sought consultant advice. It matters not at all whether the patient demands it on the NHS. The doctor must prescribe all treatment needed for his patient. The private prescription can be treated as a consultant's recommendation for treatment. 3. Ministers, HAs and over-zealous colleagues on PCG/PCTs may pontificate and disapprove of such translations in principle but they would not be the ones to face any disciplinary action nor would they rush to the doctor's defence. 4. Subject to the above proviso's dispensing and other doctors must do as the patient wishes and needs. |
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