PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Prescriptions (12 March 2015)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what representations he has received on extending beyond three months the length of time for which that GPs can prescribe medications to patients with existing conditions who are leaving the country.

Asked by:
Mr Toby Perkins (Labour)

When a doctor prescribes a drug, they are clinically and legally responsible for any results of that decision to prescribe. In view of this it would not be considered good clinical practice for a doctor to prescribe large amounts of drugs to a patient going abroad for an extended period of time, whose progress that general practitioner is not able to monitor.

Any patient who leaves the country for three months or more is no longer considered ordinarily resident and, as such, is not entitled to National Health Service treatment.

No representations have been received asking for this period to be extended.

Answered by:
Dr Dan Poulter (Labour)
19 March 2015