The General Dental Council (GDC) has advised that dental hygienists and therapists can now prescribe local anaesthetics. Following pressure from the GDC the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has now added dental hygienists and therapists to the group of healthcare professionals who are able to prescribe local anaesthetic under a ‘patient group direction’.
An injection of local anaesthetic involves the use of a prescription-only medicine (POM) which means that, under the Medicines Act 1968 it can only be prescribed by a suitably qualified prescriber - traditionally a doctor or a dentist. Legislation was introduced throughout the UK in 2000 to allow certain other healthcare professionals to administer POMs in specific circumstances. This can happen in two ways:
• Via a Patient Group Direction (PGD)
(This is a legal framework that allows a listed group of healthcare professionals to administer medicines to a group of patients, without the need for a written patient-specific prescription or instruction from the approved prescriber).
OR
• An approved prescriber may provide a documented, patient specific direction or PSD (a written instruction) which allows the healthcare professional to administer a POM to a specific patient.
However, in 2008 it became apparent that dental hygienists and therapists had been missed off the list of healthcare professionals able to administer medicines via a PGD when the Department of Health had drafted the legislation. This meant they could only administer local anaesthetic and fluoride varnish to patients on the basis of a PSD.
The problem was publicised and the GDC issued a statement to registrants informing them that, until the law could be amended, hygienists and therapists should only give local anaesthesia to patients if it had been specifically prescribed by a dentist.
