Amendment of regulation 2(1) of the GMS Contracts Wales Regulations

4.—(1) Regulation 2(1) of the GMS Contracts Wales Regulations is amended in accordance with the following provisions of this regulation.

(2) For the definition of “independent nurse prescriber” substitute—

““independent nurse prescriber” means a person—

(a)

who is either engaged or employed by the contractor or is a party to the contract,

(b)

who is registered in the Nursing and Midwifery Register, and

(c)

in respect of whom an annotation signifying that he or she is qualified to order drugs, medicines and appliances from—

(i)

the Nurse Prescribers' Formulary for District Nurses and Health Visitors in Part XVIIB(i) of the Drug Tariff, or

(ii)

the Nurse Prescribers' Formulary for Community Practitioners under Part XVIIB(i) of the Drug Tariff

is also recorded in that register. For the purposes of the POM Order, an independent nurse prescriber is a community practitioner nurse prescriber ;”.

(3) In the appropriate places in the alphabetical order, insert the following definitions—

““accredited course” means a course accredited by the Nursing and Midwifery Council;” ;

“nurse independent prescriber” means a person—

(a)

who is either engaged or employed by the contractor or is a party to the contract,

(b)

whose name is registered in the Nursing and Midwifery Register, and

(c)

who, in respect of a person practising in Wales on or after 1 February 2007, has passed an accredited course to practise as a nurse independent prescriber;” ;

“pharmacist independent prescriber” means a person—

(a)

who is either engaged or employed by the contractor or is a party to the contract,

(b)

who is a pharmacist, and

(c)

against whose name is recorded in the relevant register an annotation signifying that he or she is qualified to order drugs, medicines and appliances as a pharmacist independent prescriber;”.

(4) In the definition of “relevant register” following the words “the Pharmacy (Northern Ireland) Order 1976;” insert the following—

“(c) in relation to a person whose name is registered in the part of the register maintained by the Health Professions Council in pursuance of Article 5 of the Health Professions Order 2001 relating to—

(i) chiropodists and podiatrists;

(ii) physiotherapists; or

(iii) radiographers: diagnostic or therapeutic; that register; and

(d) in relation to a registered optometrist, the register of optometrists maintained under section 7(a) of the Opticians Act 1989;”.

(5) In the definition of “prescriber”, in paragraph (b) remove the word “and”, following paragraph “(c) supplementary prescriber,” insert—

“(d) a nurse independent prescriber, and

(e) a pharmacist independent prescriber,” .