Public consultation (MLX 351): Proposals for amendments to medicines legislation to allow dispensing opticians access to certain prescription only medicines (POMs)

MLX 351 sought your views on proposals for amendments to medicines legislation to allow dispensing opticians access to certain prescription only medicines (POMs).

Outcome December 2009
Consultation letter MLX 351 was issued on 29 August 2008 with a deadline for comments of 28 November. It was circulated to a range of interested organisations throughout the UK and a copy appeared on the MHRA website. The MHRA received 86 responses, of which six related to the devolved administrations. In view of the numbers involved, officials in the devolved administrations agreed that the outcome below should cover all the replies rather than providing a breakdown of those relating to individual countries.

The replies can be broadly categorised as follows:

• Medical/pharmaceutical organisations - 7
• Optical organisations and interests - 57
• Other organisations and individuals - 24

Seventy eight (78) of the replies expressed support for the proposals. Eight (8) made no specific comment on the proposals or expressed no preference. The vast majority of the replies expressed no opposition to the general principle of allowing dispensing opticians to order wholesale supplies of medicines for use by optometrists visiting their practices or for use in contact lens practice.

A summary of substantive responses is below.