E-PRESCRIBING
NHS Salford’s community pharmacy contract manager Monica Roper and IT project manager Daniel Alexander explain the trust’s move to ‘stage 2’ of e-prescribing.
M
illions of prescriptions are issued every week in England;
approximately 1.6 million every working day in fact. Repeat prescriptions are most common, with seven out of every ten prescriptions being a repeat prescription.
In order to manage prescriptions in Salford more efficiently, NHS Salford are preparing to introduce the second stage of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS), known as ‘Release 2’.
The first stage of EPS, known as Release 1, is already being used by Salford GP and pharmacy contractors and has been for a number of years. GP practices have generated over 3.5 million EPS Release 1 prescriptions since the system went live in 2006.
EPS Release 1 introduced a barcode to prescriptions generated by the GP practice system. When presented by the patient at a pharmacy, this barcode can be scanned directly into the pharmacy system, meaning that there is no need to manually enter the prescription information – including patient demographics. This has resulted in greater accuracy and efficiency in the whole dispensing process.
Implementation Roll-out
In January 2010, NHS Salford was granted approval, under NHS directions from the Secretary of State, to deploy EPS Release 2 across the city. Since then, NHS Salford has been working closely with representatives from the Local Pharmacy Committee (LPC) and Local Medical Committee (LMC) in developing an implementation strategy for the deployment of EPS Release 2.
In Release 2 it is envisaged that patients will no longer require a paper prescription in order to collect their medication. Patients will be required to nominate a pharmacy of their choice. This pharmacy will receive a patient’s electronic prescription, sent by the patient’s GP practice. The patient can then collect their prescription at a convenient time.
NHS Salford will start implementing EPS Release 2 in a controlled environment, starting with a pairing of one GP practice
30 | national health executive May/Jun 11
It is anticipated that our principal GP system supplier, INPS, will deliver EPS
Feedback from the engagement events resulted in the development of an online portal dedicated to EPS aiming to keep stakeholders informed of progress, frequently asked questions and current EPS Release 2 compliant contractors. Once fully active, the Electronic Prescription Service will bring a range of benefits.
EPS benefits for patients and carers include:
• Reduction in trips to the GP practice just to collect, or request a paper prescription – particularly for patients receiving repeat medication;
• Greater freedom of choice, making it simpler for patients to use a pharmacy convenient to them;
• Potential to reduce pharmacy waiting times as staff will have the opportunity to prepare prescriptions in advance of the patient’s arrival.
Daniel Alexander and Monica Roper
and one pharmacy. From this initial deployment, NHS Salford plans to capture and understand the necessary changes in business processes required to operate EPS Release 2. NHS Salford aims to establish a best practice blueprint to support further rollout by working closely with the Project Board, the LPC, the LMC and patient representatives.
Release 2 in Vision by July 2011. Following this NHS Salford will begin deploying EPS Release 2 at the first GP practice/pharmacy pairing.
Since January 2010, NHS Salford has conducted a number of stakeholder engagement events to raise awareness of EPS Release 2 and communicate the changes and benefits to patients and staff.
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