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GMC issues new prescribing guidance
31 Jan 2013
New guidance for doctors on how to prescribe medicine safely has been issued by the General Medical Council (GMC) today.
Good practice in prescribing and managing medicines and devices strengthens and broadens the current advice on prescribing medicines to include medical devices and gives key updates on using unlicensed medicines.
While doctors should usually prescribe medicine within the terms on their licence, unlicensed medicines are commonly used in some areas such as paediatrics, psychiatry and palliative care.
Doctors can still prescribe medicines outside their licence when it is necessary to do so to meet the specific needs of the patient.
Under the new guidance doctors should avoid prescribing for themselves or their families unless it is an emergency where lives or health are at serious risk.
They must also not prescribe performance-enhancing drugs or treatments to athletes. Any doctor who suspects that an athlete’s performance is improperly enhanced should raise concerns in the public interest.
In addition, the guidance bans doctors from remotely prescribing drugs such as Botox or other similar injectable cosmetics by phone, email, video-link or fax– a move which came into force in July last year.
The guidance also reminds doctors that they must report any adverse incidents involving drugs medical devices such as X-ray and other imaging equipment, pacemakers, artificial joints and anaesthetic equipment.
Niall Dickson, Chief Executive of the General Medical Council, said:
‘Safe prescribing is at the heart of good medicine and it's a skill that doctors must develop and keep up to date throughout their careers.
‘This new guidance tightens the current rules on prescribing and addresses the challenges doctors face in this complex area.
‘We very much hope doctors will find this guidance useful, not least in making clear what is expected from them so patients receive the best possible treatment and care.’
The guidance comes into force on 25 February 2013.
It replaces the previous edition published in 2008 and follows an extensive public consultation in April 2011.
Read the new prescribing guidance.
Notes to editors
The General Medical Council is the independent regulator of the UK's 250,000 doctors.
Our job is to protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public by ensuring proper standards in the practice of medicine.
We do this by managing entry to the medical register and setting the educational standards for all UK doctors through medical schools and postgraduate education and training. We also determine the principles and values that underpin good medical practice and we take firm but fair action where those standards have not been met. This role and the powers to do it are given to us by Parliament through the 1983 Medical Act.
We are not here to protect the medical profession - their interests are protected by others. Our job is to protect patients. We are independent of government and the profession and accountable to Parliament.
To find out more please visit our website .