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<p>The Department has received a small number of letters about the availability of
injectable B12 over the counter and the issue was also raised at a meeting between
the B12 Deficiency Group and the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public
Health (Jane Ellison) in July 2016. All authorised medicines for injection are classified
by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency as prescription only. Whether
or not a patient could self-administer a prescribed medicine would be a matter of
clinical judgement for the patient’s doctor to determine.</p><p>The diagnosis and
treatment for B12 deficiencies is well established and reported in the British Committee
for Standards in Haematology (BCSH) guidance document, <em>Guidelines for the diagnosis
and treatment of Cobalamin and Folate disorders</em>. The guidance was last updated
in May 2014 and can be found at the following link:</p><p><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjh.12959/epdf"
target="_blank">http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjh.12959/epdf</a></p><p>The
BCSH operates independently of the Department and NHS England and produces evidence-based
guidelines for both clinical and laboratory haematologists on the diagnosis and treatment
of haematological disease, drawing on the advice of expert consultants and clinical
scientists practicing in the United Kingdom.</p>
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