The preferred way for patients to receive medicines is for trained healthcare professionals to prescribe for individual patients on a one-to-one basis. However, in some circumstances, it may be more appropriate for a patient to receive a medicine, including a vaccine (i.e. have it supplied and/or administered) directly from another healthcare professional. Unless covered by exemptions to the Medicines Act 1968, there are two ways of achieving this: either by Patient Specific Direction (PSD) or Patient Group Direction (PGD).
This chapter describes what PSDs and PGDs are and their use in immunisation.