BOLTON has secured a prestigious feather in its nursing cap.

The decision to extend the Nurse Prescribing Project to all GP practices across the borough has been warmly welcomed by the medical profession.

It was in October 1994 that the Government gave four nurses at Dr Saul and Partners on Chorley Old Road permission to prescribe a limited number of drugs and essential dressings and incontinence materials.

The success of this pilot, mirrored in seven other areas across the country, has now prompted an extension of the project to all GP practices across Bolton. This will mean 150 nurses, after completing a three-day professional training course at Manchester Business School, will be given the authority to prescribe from a limited range of items.

Working under the umbrella of Bolton Community Healthcare Trust, the nurses will be able to go into patients homes and work directly on behalf of the family doctor.

"If a patient is released from hospital after an operation and their wound needs attention then it is far better for the patient and for us to prescribe the dressings that patient needs," explained district nurse Rita Hurst, who was one of the first nurses in the borough given the power to prescribe. "The whole scheme saves an awful lot of time, there is far less wastage and everyone gets a far better sense of satisfaction.

"There's no question of our playing doctors, that isn't what this scheme is all about, it's about nurses delivering a far better service to patients and making nurses more accountable and giving them greater job satisfaction."

For Dr Peter Saul and his colleagues, the extension of the scheme is welcome news.

In the past 15 months he, and his partners, have appreciated the efficiency of the scheme and the increased recognition it gives to nurses. In addition to these two benefits is the cash savings made since the introduction of the scheme. Previously, GP's would sign a prescription for dressings and the drugs they're able to prescribe.

"This often resulted in wastage. It is the nurses who work in these peoples homes and they're the one's who know what a person needs. It is far more sensible that nurses prescribe directly to these patients," said Dr Saul.

"We aren't talking about nurses replacing doctors merely complementing the work they do, the savings accrued from this scheme has certainly enabled this practice to invest further in patient care."

Mary Cropper, Director of Operations for Community Healthcare Bolton, said: "The high calibre and professionalism of nurses and doctors in Bolton will help to ensure that the extension of nurse prescribing is successful, enhancing the quality of health services for the people of Bolton." "This will be the first district in the country where all the people will be covered by community nurses who can sign prescriptions in their own right.

"Our community nurses have demonstrated that they have delivered ever increasing efficiency in their workload and coped with all the changes in the NHS."

She added: "This will be a significant advance for the nursing profession, which is long overdue and hopefully only the start of further development."

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