Prescribing of borderline foods and dietary products should comply with the recommendations of the Advisory Committee of Borderline Substances (ACBS).
The prescriber must endorse the item on the prescription “ACBS” Complete guidance can be found in the Drug Tariff Part XV. Part A of this Chapter lists the products which the ACBS has recommended for the management of the conditions shown under each product. Part B lists the medical conditions and the products which the ACBS has approved for the management of those conditions.
There are several areas where prescriptions for dietary products do not comply with the above recommendations and responsibility lies with individual GPs who may use their judgement to make exceptions to the above recommendations. The diagnosis of the condition being treated needs to be clear. This may occur following recommendations from a dietitian or for a medical condition requiring nutritional support for a defined period of time. An example of this would be a patient having had maxillofacial surgery being discharged from hospital with a wired jaw and requiring nutritional support for six to
eight weeks post operation. Such a patient would be unlikely to receive adequate nutrition from a manageable volume of liquefied foods.
