This news might help some members - assuming it goes ahead:
Pharmacists will be permitted to hand out a raft of controlled drugs without prescription, including potentially addictive painkillers, under a proposed move to alleviate pressure on the NHS during the coronavirus outbreak.
The home secretary, Priti Patel, has written to the government’s official drug tsars asking them for advice on the risks of lifting restrictions on certain substances controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
The emergency changes proposed would allow pharmacists to hand out these substances without prescription.
Some of the substances are highly addictive and include barbiturates and opiates, such as morphine.
However, it will only apply only to patients who have been receiving the drug as part of ongoing treatment.
In her letter to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, the home secretary asks the panel to consider the “risks of making these changes related to greater access to controlled drugs and risk of diversion or misuse which have been taken into account in developing the measures”.
She has requested the council respond by Friday as the government wishes to lay regulations as soon as possible.
In addition, the Home Office wants to apply a measure called a supply shortage protocol to certain controlled drugs, which would allow pharmacists to hand out alternatives without having to go back to doctors in the event that the prescribed drug is running low as there is a “significant risk” to supply due to the crisis.
Patel writes:
These measures help secure access to controlled drugs within the healthcare system in a pandemic and where there is a serious risk to human health. They will ensure patients continue to have access to medicines critical for ongoing treatment, build resilience and help relieve pressure elsewhere in the health system.
