An IP has specific personal accountabilities as well as responsibilities that they must undertake. Accountability and responsibility are words that are used loosely and interchangeably, but they have distinct meanings.

A person who is accountable is where the buck stops for a task. A person who is responsible is charged with doing that task. Many people can be responsible for doing a task but only one person can be accountable for a task being completed properly.

This can be confusing as sometimes it appears that people share accountability. An example will help. A pharmacist will be accountable for a clinical check of a prescription, that it has been done correctly. The responsible pharmacist, superintendent pharmacist and business owner may be accountable for ensuring the process or standard operating procedure (SOP) for the clinical check is robust and being used properly. Both may be accountable if an error occurs, but they are accountable separately for their parts in the system.

An independent prescriber is responsible for:

• Assessing patients

• Writing prescriptions

• Writing management plans for patients

• Communicating with patients and potentially other healthcare professionals

• Obtaining consent

• Maintaining records

• Working within their competence

• Maintaining their competence. 

Like all pharmacists, they are accountable for doing these tasks properly. Alongside these responsibilities, they have personal accountabilities that they cannot share, delegate or transfer. These are:

• Making autonomous decisions to prescribe a medicine

• To prescribe only for conditions they are competent to prescribe for. 

Decisions based on these accountabilities cannot be overruled by another without them taking accountability for the decision. If you are not an IP yourself, you cannot then overrule these decisions.

As a manager of a business or service, you are, however, accountable for the quality of a service. This gives specific areas in which an IP can and should be managed.