ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2023

‘Non-Medical Prescribing – Sustainable Prescribing Through Multi-Disciplinary Care’

24^th Annual Conference & Annual General Meeting

9^th November 2023

Was held at

The Birmingham Conference & Events Centre, Hill Street, Birmingham B5 4EW

The Association for Prescribers team were delighted to be back after three years with an in-person conference held in Birmingham.

Always a great networking event, the AFP conference provided policy updates and information to support more informed choices on sustainable prescribing and better-shared practice.

Presentations were given from the Medical Cannabis Clinician Society ensuring that services in the medical cannabis sector are established with patient care as the central pillar.

In the UK, approximately 1.4-1.8 million people use cannabis. An estimated 25,000 patients are supplied with a legal prescription. Cannabis for medicinal use was legalised in the UK in 2018.

We welcomed back Anne Trotter, Assistant Director of Education & Standards, NMC. In the context of regulatory reform, Ann’s presentation addressed current opportunities and barriers to increasing the capability of the nursing workforce. The number of non-medical prescribers is increasing. The NMC supports all nurses and midwives in being prescriber-ready at the point of qualification. It may be in the future that newly qualified nurses hold the V150 prescribing qualification. Safety is benchmarked against the RPS competency framework, professional codes, and standards.

Nuala Hampson, Lead Facilitator for education at the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare presented ‘Sustainable Prescribing & the Impact of Medicines on the Environment’.

Climate change is a public health emergency. Patient safety is an imperative. The NHS is the first healthcare organisation in the world to pledge to net zero emissions. This means that ICBs must have a clear plan for reducing the medicines’ carbon footprint and medicines waste.

All the day’s presentations and slides will be available to view very soon for our AFP members.

The date of next year’s conference will be announced in early 2024.