United Kingdom - Thérèse Coffey appointed Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sept 2022

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I've had antibiotics prescribed by a pharmacist and by an out of hours paramedic, in both cases after consultation with them, in both cases for urinary infection.
 
Arnie Pye said:
Re - the big quote in post #23...

I've never heard of Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) before. They sound like conveyor belt medicine. Since GPs will often just listen to one symptom per appointment I'm not clear on what these CDCs will achieve.
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OK, someone mentioned CDC in a post in a thread I started, and I just assumed they meant the Center for Disease Controls, in the US!
 
Trish said:
Moderator note Some posts on this thread are under review. Please be mindful of the rule:
Rule 12: No religion or non-ME politics
Religion and politics are inherently divisive subjects, with limited relevance to ME/CFS. Accordingly it is not permitted to promote or critique any religion, spiritual belief, or the lack thereof. Politics may be discussed strictly in the context of ME, but must still avoid any generalizations about members or supporters of political parties.
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Sorry for my earlier post. Will be more careful henceforth!
 
Trish said:
I've had antibiotics prescribed by a pharmacist and by an out of hours paramedic, in both cases after consultation with them, in both cases for urinary infection.
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The extension of prescribing regulations in the UK dates back to 2006 for pharmacists and some nurses, under the Independent Prescriber legislation: Pharmacist independent prescriber while the general principal of the nurse prescriber goes back to a 1986 report: Prescribing practice: an overview of the principles which in part led to the development of the Advance Nurse Practioner role . Both Drs and nurses working as paramedics who otherwise have permission to prescribe can do so while in a paramedic role, however as of 2019 suitably qualified paramedics of any training can prescribe: Paramedic prescribing - all of the these prescribing roles involve additional training, and some involve limitation on what medications can be prescribed in what circumstance.

The only significant limitation on access to basic prescribed medication in the UK is the cost of prescription for those not qualifying for reductions https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/prescriptions-and-pharmacies/nhs-prescription-charges/
 
That would be such a relief to treat my repeated sinus infections (only use AB's if all my other methods fail).
 
Further reading has shown that some pharmacists in Scotland and Wales have already trained to prescribe common drugs including antibiotics. The scheme is apparently working well as pharmacists are very aware of the problems of overprescribing and antibiotic resistance. In fact, someone said that they can be better than some doctors who have their favourites and turn to them too often.

I don't know about Wales, but prescriptions are free in Scotland so that is not a factor.

It sounded like any shop assistant could hand them over but that was bad communication.
 
RedFox said:
Then I hope whoever comes next will speak out about ME and LC like Sajid Javid did.
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We shouldn't expect that and should not be disappointed if it doesn't happen, whoever is next in post - and we don't know even if any of the current Cabinet will be invited to stay in post, so no automatic change at Dept of Health.

The reality is that the UK is in an exceptionally 'stressed' situation politically and economically and the demands on the SoS for Health will be considerable over the next 12 - 24 months. What we can hope for is a positive response from the politicians when the DecodeME work comes to publication, until then getting ME/CFS high on the political agenda is going to remain a big ask.
 
RedFox said:
I'm aware that we're far more likely to get someone who neglects ME, but one can hope. Also, yes, the UK is dealing with a lot, so I agree that ME isn't likely to come up for a while.
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One of the big things its dealing with a massive amount of new disability in the form of Long Covid. The head in sand approach while Covid takes up at least 30% of all NHS resources and destroys peoples health so far really hasn't worked out too well. But even then I still don't think its likely any replacements or replacement governments are likely to care about this, Covid is over don't you know.
 
On a serious note, I wou1d just be happy to have a Hea1th Secretary who prioritises focusing on 'hea1th inequa1ities' again. A much broader and desperate1y needed remit that affects a 1arge proportion of the popu1ation, inc1uding PWME and other vu1nerab1e patients. TC she1ved the white paper on this, something Javid had promised to pub1ish and act on.

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...ey-scraps-promised-paper-on-health-inequality
 
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