(Doctors and patients should co-sign prescriptions)
Patients do not always take the full course of the tablets they are prescribed and sometimes doctors are not sure of what patients really want, say Dr Joe Colllier and Professor Sean Hilton who have written a letter in this week's BMJ. They say that to resolve this mismatch and improve the chances of treatment success and eliminate waste, patients and prescribers should discuss in detail the treatment options before the prescription is written. If the process is equitable, patients should indicate their responsibility by signing their own prescriptions as well as their doctor (dentist or nurse). They say that, "The adoption of this concordance model for the relationship between patient and prescriber should ensure that decisions on prescribing are made jointly, with both parties in agreement and with responsibility shared."
Contact:
Dr Joe Collier, Reader and Consultant in Clinical Pharmacology or Professor Sean Hilton, Professor of General Practice, St George's Hospital Medical School, London