Default Signer

Currently the default signer of a prescription depends on the setup in Consultation - Options - Setup. The Prescriber on a Therapy entry will default to the current user if the user is a Prescriber - sole practitioner, senior partner, partner, associate partner, locum GP or assistant GP; and now one of the nurse or pharmacist roles.  In a consultation, this is usually the Consulting Clinician, and is selected if a prescriber.

Otherwise, if the user signed on is not a prescriber, then this will be the Prescriber in Group 2 as defined in Consultation Options - Setup - Data entry - Usual GP, Registered GP, CHS GP or Blank.

Now, if the current user is able to prescribe any of the prescriptions, the preference will be given to the current user. Checks are made to make sure the staff member is able to prescribe the selected medication.

If a prescription item is selected that cannot be prescribed by the current signer, then a new prescriber will be selected who is able to prescribe all of the selected items. If there is no such prescriber, then the selected prescriber will be blank.

All items that the default or manually selected signer cannot prescribe will be deselected automatically. To determine whether an item can be selected in conjunction with a particular member of staff, the medication must be in that member of staff's formulary.

• If the user is a GP, then the initial clinician selected to sign is also a GP with full prescribing rights.
• If the user is a nurse, then the initial clinician selected to sign is the nurse.
• If the user is a receptionist, then the user selected to sign is a GP with full prescribing rights.

In other words, if a GP is the current user, then the normal rules apply. If the current user is a Nurse Prescriber, then s/he can print scripts on nurse prescriptions. If the current user is a receptionist and the patient has a mix of nurse and GP prescriptions to print, a Print All will print all on GP prescription paper. If need be, the receptionist would first deselect the GP items to print the nurse prescriptions, and then select the nurse items to print these on nurse prescriptions.

Prescriber	Selected Drugs	Signer
Community Practitioner Nurse Prescriber	Nurse Formulary Drugs	Community Practitioner Nurse Prescriber to sign
	Drugs outside of the Nurse Formulary	GP to sign
Independent/Supplementary Nurse Prescriber	Any drug (excluding specific controlled drugs).	Independent/Supplementary Prescriber to sign
	Specific controlled drugs (see NMC website www.nmc-uk.org)	GP to sign
GP	Any drug by any prescriber.	GP to sign