Summary

Doctors and dentists cannot supply or administer medications under a PGD or Written Instruction.  This page gives further detail on why this is the case.

Legislation

Doctors and dentists can legally prescribe and subsequently administer the medicine they have prescribed.  They can also administer a medicine prescribed by another prescriber.

• Only healthcare professionals listed in the PGD legislation can supply or administer medications under a PGD, this does not include doctors and dentists.
• Doctors and dentists cannot administer medicines under a Written Instruction used for Occupational Health Services (OHS).

Flu vaccinations

For peer to peer ‘flu vaccinations doctors and dentists may vaccinate their peers either by prescribing and administering the vaccine or administering under the prescription of another prescriber: the process to be followed is for local agreement following governance considerations.

Where a doctor or dentist is prescribing and administering a flu vaccine and are not a specialist in occupational health they should act within the same framework as other peer to peer vaccinators.  They should complete the same training/declare themselves as competent and use the PGD or WI as guidance (i.e. inclusion/exclusion criteria) and refer to an OHS specialist any person falling outside the inclusion criteria/who are excluded as any other peer to peer vaccinator would be expected to.