Tag: GMC
Power of medications and prescribing scenarios
In this post I will spend some time understanding the power of medications, then extract some fundamental principles from the GMC’s guidance on prescribing (April 2021). I then analyse two real-world scenarios in prescribing that I have experienced and reference each against the GMC’s guidance. The power of medications Medicines are powerful ‘chemicals’. How? A few milligrams – thousandths of a gram – can have powerful effects on the body’s organs. 20 mg of citalopram is 7 ten thousandths ofRead More …
Medication reviews
In the last 3 years I’ve received many requests for medication reviews. Interestingly most of those requests came from nurses; not pharmacists, not social workers and not other doctors. Underlying the requests were generally some concern that patients were not improving. Not a single request was about medication toxicity, or polypharmacy. Nurses tended to hint at the patient requiring higher doses or more medications. That body of experience led me to investigate the concept of medication reviews. The term meansRead More …
Prescribing and related regulatory matters
This article is intended to be of assistance: To medical doctors and other qualified persons undertaking or participating in medication reviews. To other staff who may be assisting doctors with arrangements for medication reviews. In understanding some of the complexities of prescribing as against ‘prescription‘. Gaining a deeper appreciation of the risks to be considered and managed. Appreciating the regulatory framework surrounding prescribing. To trainee doctors or other practitioners, who prescribe or re-write prescriptions. [Disclaimer at end of this articleRead More …