HC Deb 18 October 1968 vol 770 cc799-801

Lords Amendment No. 82: In page 44, leave out lines 27 to 31 and insert: '( ) Those restrictions also do not apply—

  1. (a) to the sale or supply of a medicinal product of a description, or falling within a class, specified in an order made by the Health Ministers for the purposes of this paragraph, where the product is sold or supplied by a registered nurse in the course of her professional practice, or
  2. (b) to the sale or supply of a medicinal product of a description, or falling within a class, specified in an order made by the Health Ministers for the purposes of this paragraph, where the product either is sold or supplied by a certified midwife (or, in relation to England and Wales, by a certified 800 midwife or exempted midwife) in the course of her professional practice or is delivered or administered by such a midwife on being supplied in pursuance of arrangements made by a local health authority in Great Britain or by a health authority in Northern Ireland."

Mr. K. Robinson

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

Mr. Deputy Speaker

It will be appropriate to take at the same time Amendments Nos. 83, 84, 134 and 135.

Mr. Robinson

Paragraphs (b) and (c) of Clause 48(1) were inserted by Government Amendments on Report stage in this House to fill a gap in the Bill when we realised that the supply of a drug to a hospital patient or to the patient of a nurse or midwife technically involved a retail sale or supply in circumstances corresponding to retail sale". It would not have been reasonable to leave such sale or supply subject to the requirements of Clauses 45 and 46 which were specifically designed to cover sale or supply at pharmacies, retail shops, and the like.

The amended Clause has, however, been criticised on two grounds. First, that by giving a total exemption for health centres and for hospitals—and "hospitals" is a word which has quite a wide connotation—the Bill would make it impossible to introduce, without amending legislation, safeguards that might one day be felt to be essential relating to the organisation of hospital and clinic arrangements for the supply of medicines to patients. The second criticism was that exemption for nurses and midwives selling or supplying medicines in the course of their profession might be misinterpreted as being wider than we intended.

There is some substance in both points. Amendment No. 82 accordingly restates the exemption for nurses and midwives and limits it to products specified in an order. Amendments Nos. 83 and 84 give a power to terminate or modify by order subject to affirmative resolution the exemptions in Clause 48 for hospitals and health centres and for nurses and midwives but not those for practitioners.

Amendments Nos. 134 and 135 are consequential. The first makes the orders listing products which nurses and mid-wives may supply subject to negative resolution, which is in line with other provisions for listing medicinal products in connection with other restrictions under the Bill. The second is purely consequential to the Amendment to Clause 50.

Question put and agreed to.

Subsequent Lords Amendment agreed to.

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