THE healthcare trust in charge of Okehampton Community Hospital has increased its commitment to train more clinical staff to become non-medical prescribers.

Non-medical prescribers can provide treatment to patients that previously could only be offered by doctors or dentists. It reflects a change in the law in recent years and is set to become increasingly common in the future.

There are 84 non-medical prescribers in the Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust, with nine new ones set to start after intensive training. The trust is one of the few in the country to invest in a full-time lead for non-medical prescribing, Sally Jarmain.

She said non-medical prescribing brought many benefits and that patient feedback was consistently very good.

'Non-medical prescribers can help to improve patient care in a number of ways, including offering quick access to medicines, closer monitoring of treatment and allowing more patient choice,' said Mrs Jarmain.

'Many of our non-medical prescribers are community nurses, and help to provide prescriptions to patients in rural localities who would otherwise have to travel long distances to see a doctor.

'We also have several specialist nurses who are trained as non-medical prescribers, meaning they can offer treatment to patients who would have previously had to wait to see a doctor.

'Another benefit is that the time of the doctors is then freed up to see urgent or complex patients more quickly.'