Nurse Prescribing

The PPA is now producing information on prescribing by nurses. The nurses concerned are those with a District Nurse or Health Visitor qualification. They also have to have successfully completed a Nurse Prescriber's training course approved by the English National Board and is employed by an NHS Trust and NHS GP Practice.

As the number of nurses eligible to prescribe is increasing the PPA have responded to the requirement to give the relevant bodies within the NHS the ability to monitor this prescribing. These bodies include:

• community units
• or community trusts who employ community unit nurses
• Health Authorities
• Regional Offices
• NHS Executive

The information provided is that which is captured from the prescription forms FP10(PN) and FP10(CN).

There are a number of different information systems which have been enhanced or extended to include nurse prescribing information.

Indicative Prescribing Scheme

In addition to the information originally produced for GP practices, Health Authorities, Regional Offices and the NHS Executive, the IPS system now produces monthly statements and summary information for the prescribing by community unit nurses. This information is available to the community unit manager. It will also be available to all the levels of organisation who have some responsibility for monitoring the cost of the prescribing against the target budget. The reports provide information on prescribing for the current month and cumulative for the year to date. There is also detailed information available on which GP practices the prescribing is attributed to. This will be in the community unit summary report. All the IPS reports are issued automatically on a monthly basis.

PACT Standard reports

The PACT Standard reports provide information on the cost and number of items prescribed by nurses employed by a GP practice. This information is available at all levels of the report that is GP practice, Health Authority, Regional Office and National. It is reflected on the back page of the report. The PACT Standards are available automatically to all GP's every quarter and on request for monthly and quarterly periods for all other interested bodies.

PACT catalogues

The current range of PACT catalogues has been extended to allow detailed monitoring by both community unit and community practice nurses. The following additional catalogues are now available:-

• all community practice nurse prescribing within a practice, group fund, Health Authority, Regional Office or England
• all community unit nurse prescribing within a community unit, NHS trust, Regional Office or England
• all prescribing for a community unit showing a detailed breakdown of all the GP practices where nurses have prescribed and the details of the individual nurse who has written the prescriptions.