New president of the British Association of Therapists (BADT), Fiona Sandom, is pledging to work towards changing the 'unfair' status quo on prescribing rights for dental therapists.

It comes as physiotherapists were granted powers to prescribe [a restricted list of] medicines under new laws coming into force in Wales, Ms Sandom's home country.

The change – also applying to chiropodists and podiatrists – is aimed at easing the pressure on these areas of the NHS. Nurses, pharmacists and optometrists can already prescribe certain medicines, with powers now extended to additional groups of health professionals, subject to training.

Ms Sandom explained: 'It's unfair and hampers our work greatly, since we are unable to carry out the full scope of our practice and whilst some of our places of work have Patient Group Directions (PGDs) in place, they are still extremely limiting.'