A UK-wide project is underway to explore the possibility of enabling biomedical scientists to use Patient Group Directions (PGDs) in order to supply or administer medicines.
NHS England is leading the project and will be working closely with the IBMS and other key stakeholders to explore this proposal.
PGDs are documents that enable groups of patients to receive a specific medicine in a particular clinical situation.
They can be written for use by different registered healthcare professionals who are authorised to do so for the use of one-off treatments, diagnostic tests, or acute episodes of care.
A change to legislation is required to extend the use of PGDs to additional professional groups. This includes a public consultation and consideration of responses by the Commission on Human Medicines.
The commission will then make recommendations to ministers in respect of any legislative change. The process is expected to take around two years.
For further information on this proposal, email [email protected]