Paramedic prescribing: implementation in practice

In April 2018, the Human Medicine Regulations 2012 were changed to allow paramedics to become independent and supplementary prescribers. As of February 2020, 430 paramedics had gained the independent prescribing qualification, and are registered independent prescribing paramedics by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) (2020a).

Paramedics have previously given medication under emergency exemption legislation or by patient group directives (PGDs). Independent and supplementary prescribing enables a much broader scope of medicines to be prescribed, with the practitioner carrying responsibility for assessment and making the right pharmacological choice (Nuttall and Rutt-Howard, 2016).

Prescribing is complex. It encompasses policy, prescribers’ knowledge and experiences, workplaces, supervision and support, clinical governance, patient safety and patient needs and expectations.

This article presents some of the findings of a survey that explored many of these issues. The aim of this article is to compare and contrast how the implementation of prescribing paramedics within the healthcare system relates to the expectations of stakeholders. First, these expectations and stakeholders are identified; then current literature relating to prescribing paramedics is identified, before methods, survey findings and a discussion are presented.