You are here

Article Text

Article menu

Download PDFPDF

Editorial
How pharmacist prescribers can help meet the mental health consequences of COVID-19
Free
  1. Orla Macdonald1,
  2. Katharine Smith2,
  3. Michael Marven1,
  4. Nick Broughton1,
  5. John Geddes1,2,
  6. Andrea Cipriani1,2
  1. 1 Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford, UK
  2. 2 Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
  1. Correspondence to Professor Andrea Cipriani, Warneford Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2JD, UK; andrea.cipriani{at}psych.ox.ac.uk
View Full Text

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/ebmental-2020-300210

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    The British Medical Association recently published their report on the impact of COVID-19 on mental health in England, highlighting the urgent need for investment in mental health services and further recruitment of mental health staff.1 Like many others, they have predicted a substantial increase in demand on mental health services in the coming months. Their recommendations include a call for detailed workforce planning at local, national and system levels. This coincides with the publication of the ‘NHS People Plan’ which also emphasised the need to maximise staff potential.2 The message from both is clear, it is time for Trusts to revise and improve how they use their multidisciplinary workforce, including non-medical prescribers (NMPs).

    Pharmacists have been able to register as independent prescribers since 20063 and as such, can work autonomously to prescribe any medicine for any medical condition within their areas of competency.4 There has been a slow uptake of pharmacists into this role5 and while a recent General Pharmaceutical Council survey found only a small increase between the number of active prescribers from 2013 (1.094) to 2019 (1.590), almost a quarter of prescribers included mental health within their prescribing practice.6 More recently, we …

    View Full Text

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Copyright information:

    © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. This article is made freely available for use in accordance with BMJ’s website terms and conditions for the duration of the covid-19 pandemic or until otherwise determined by BMJ. You may use, download and print the article for any lawful, non-commercial purpose (including text and data mining) provided that all copyright notices and trade marks are retained.https://bmj.com/coronavirus/usage