HPC stance on POM's

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Recieved this from the HPC today

Thank you for your recent e-mail. Sorry for the delay in my substantive response.

Having checked the relevant legislation, our understanding is that the amendment order extends the list of medicines that can be sold, supplied and administered by the following groups:

registrant podiatrists who have an annotation on the register to say that they can sell or supply prescription only medicines;
registrant podiatrists who have an annotation on the registesr to say that they can administer local anaesthesia

This means that, from a legal persceptive, a chiropodist with existing training in LA and POMs could administer or sell or supply (depending on the substance) the new range of drugs.

However, in the consutlation document from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) it was indicated the the society of chiropodists and podiatrists would insist on specific training in anaphylaxis before they would insure a member to administer adrenaline. You may wish to contact them regarding this, and for advice generally.

Form our perspective you would need to ensure that any professional activities are within your scope of pracitce - that is, the area or areas in which you are able to practise safely and effectively. Therefore you might consider undertaking further training or update training in the relevant areas.

In terms of courses we approve, you can find a list of courses on our website: http://www.hpc-uk.org/aboutregistration/educationandtraining/approvedcourses_ch/. However, these courses are primarily designed for podiatrists who wish to gain the necessary annotations in local anesethesia and prescription only medicines.

I hope the above is helpful and answers your questions but please do not hesitate to let me know if I can assist any further.

Kind regards,

Michael Guthrie
Policy Officer

 

Very Ambiguous HPC Reply.

The reply from the HPC on this issue suggests two groups, the LA group and the POM group. Local anaesthesia being a POM would indicate that those who hold a local anaesthesia certificate can prescribe POM's.
I cannot imagine for one moment that this new addition of POM's could be prescribed by podiatrists with LA certificate without further additional training. There is such conflicting information on this subject! Why have they not provided written clarification to registered chiropodists and podiatrists on this subject which after all this is part of their responsibility towards CPD?

Mark C.