Avant is urging health ministers to halt further expansion of autonomous pharmacist prescribing until safety standards are in place, following a new report on the medicolegal risks involved.

Following an analysis of some 16,000 medicolegal and regulatory complaints against doctors, it has expressed particular concern about pharmacists prescribing for conditions that typically require a doctor’s diagnosis — such as COPD and asthma — saying that the medicolegal implications show it should be permanently off limits.

The complaints date between 2020 and 2025, with the MDO finding one in six — about 2600 in total — were medication related. 

Of these, 90% were primarily about prescribing, with major issues including overprescribing that allowed patients to stockpile medications, inadequate assessment and inappropriate prescribing.