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Health Bill

I have added my name to these amendments for a slightly different reason. I wish to explore whether or not we have given sufficient consideration to the widening role of pharmacists in the personal prescription of drugs and whether, for example, the responsible pharmacist will need to be present when repeat prescriptions are requested. I envisage over the next few years—and I hope very much it will happen—that on many more occasions medicines will be prescribed by a pharmacist rather than by a registered medical practitioner. Have we given sufficient thought to when a responsible pharmacist will need to be present to supervise so as to take into account these new prescribing regulations?