Legality of scripts

[JayEm]

Quick question, if a script has the name and GMC number of one doctor but is signed by another, is it legally valid? The MEP says a prescription has to have "such particulars as indicate whether the appropriate practitioner is a doctor, dentist....." but in practice as a pre-reg I see them all the time signed by other doctors. :-S

[Defblade]

You need to be sure it's signed by a Dr who is allowed to sign. The name below on an FP10 is basically for admin - costs etc.

GMC number can be useful in the case of a Dr you don't know (espec on private rxs), but isn't a legal requirement (not even sure the 6 digit # on FP10s is the GMC #).

You have to pretty much assume that the Rxer who signed was appropriate for the script type.... you could check, but you'd get pretty unpopular very quickly!

All that said, sometimes, just sometimes, there's a forged script. And that's much more common than (as in, I've never seen) the wrong type of Rxer signing an NHS script. (There's been a few dodgy Rxers trying it on with private scripts, but that's another story... some of them have been GMC registered, too)