PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Health Professions: Prescriptions (30 April 2024)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the prescribing responsibilities of (a) dietitians and (b) other allied health professionals are regularly (i) reviewed and (ii) updated to reflect potential (A) advances in healthcare and (B) patient needs.

Asked by:
Andrew Western (Labour)

Dieticians can currently supply and administer medicines using Patient Group Directions and train to use supplementary prescribing. At present, these are deemed to be the most appropriate medicines mechanisms for their use.

The University of Surrey is carrying out a study which looks at the effect of dietitians and therapeutic radiographers prescribing on patients, staff, and services. The project began in 2019 and is now in its final phase.

The Department works with NHS England to ensure that the prescribing responsibilities for all Allied Health Professionals, including dietitians, are regularly reviewed and updated. Where it is deemed clinically appropriate and necessary to extend prescribing responsibilities to Allied Health Professionals, the Department follows an established process for making changes that ensures proposals are safe and beneficial for patients.

Answered by:
Andrew Stephenson (Conservative)
7 May 2024