The Professional Board for Dietetics and Nutrition (hereinafter referred to as the Board) would like to take this opportunity to update the practitioners on the Scheduled Nutrition Prescribing Rights project.
The view of the Board is that applying for prescribing rights for schedule nutritional substances is in line with the National Drug Policy 1996 and the World Health Organisations regarding advancing access and improving efficacy in the health systems. Section 22A(14)(b) of the Medicine and Related substances Act 101 of 1965 states that registered practitioners other than medical practitioners and dentists may only prescribe medicine or scheduled substances once they are authorised to do so by their professional council. To authorise Dietitians to prescribe scheduled nutrition products the Board is required to apply for prescription rights from South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA).
The Board appointed a task team to continue where the previous task team left off. The task team was appointed for a 30-month term of office with effect from the 1st of June 2021 with a term of office of 30 months. The following practitioners were appointed as members of the task team; Mrs Piletso Maniza representing the Board; Professor Evette Van Niekerk representing the Academia, Ms Anna-Lena du Toit representing State Hospitals, Dr Nolene Naicker representing the National Department of Health and Mrs Ineke Janse van Rensburg representing Private Practice. Professor Salome Kruger was co-opted in September 2022 to the task team on the basis that she has both Dietetics and Pharmacy background.
During their term of office, the task team managed to have nine meetings, and the following were achieved:
- Drafted the Scope of Practice with input from the Professional Practice Committee of Board. This Scope of Practice was approved by the Board to call for inputs from practitioners. The justification for the task team to take the lead in drafting the scope was to ensure that prescribing is clearly articulated in the Scope of Practice. All inputs received from practitioners were reviewed and consolidated by the Professional Practice Committee of the Board. Thereafter the Board approved the final Scope of Practice.
- The other boards within the HPCSA that have gone through the process of applying for prescribing rights were consulted. The objective for the consultations was to acquire key learnings from those boards on how they conducted prescribing rights training.
- The Board through the task team hosted a round table consultation meeting with the experts in the field of critical care nutrition. At the meeting, academia, private practice and state hospitals were represented. From the consultation with the experts a core competency document was produced. Competencies already included in the current Dietetic undergraduate training were identified and core competencies which are mandatory to enable Dietitians to prescribe were identified. The core competency document sets the expected outcomes and expertise required to offer prescribing rights training.
Last Updated on 10 May 2024 by HPCSA Corporate Affairs