Introduction: Prescribing by non medical personnel (NMP) has been introduced in the UK. The objectives of this study were to a) describe pharmacist discharge prescription transcription service (PDPTS) provided in UK hospitals prior to NMP, b) investigate the implementation of supplementary prescribing (SP) by pharmacists in England, c) explore patient opinions on development of pharmacists and nurses as independent prescribers (IP). Methods: Two postal questionnaires were undertaken, one of hospital clinical pharmacy managers (Q1) and one of PCTPs and CPs (Q2). Depth interviews with patients were also used. Ethics approval was obtained. Key Findings: For Q1 the response rate was 66% (135/206). PDPTS was offered by 49/135 (36%) of hospitals and was the most common prescribing activity undertaken. The majority of pharmacists wrote