Independent pharmacists urged to upgrade for EPS

Connecting for Health is urging individual pharmacists to upgrade their systems for release one of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) as soon as possible because of concerns they could be left behind by the major pharmacy retailers.

So far about 42% of pharmacies have been enabled for release one of EPS but CfH says it is vital that more independent pharmacies join the project to ensure they are not disadvantaged when release two of EPS begins later this year.

Tim Donohoe, CfH’s group programme director for EPS, said the 4179 systems that have so far had upgrades to their systems was largely accounted for by the major multiple pharmacies.

He told EHI Primary Care: “We need to make sure than pharmacy contractors are pressing their suppliers for a delivery date. You should know by this point when your supplier is going to deliver the system. If you have not had that dialogue with your system supplier need to have it now.”

Donohoe said that one of the main principles governing rollout of EPS was to ensure a level playing field during the transition to release two so that pharmacy contractors did not lose out to those already able to offer the benefits of release two. Key benefits due to come in EPS release two include the option for patients to nominate a pharmacy as well as allowing prescribers to apply digital signatures to prescriptions and introduce electronic repeat dispensing.

In release one of the service prescriptions are produced with barcodes and an electronic copy of the information is sent to the EPS over the NHS spine. At the pharmacy staff can then scan the prescription barcode and retrieve the electronic information. CfH argues that by getting release one in place now pharmacists will be able to get used to the system, which the agency says involves potentially significant changes at the pharmacy end.

Donohoe said it was hard to tell whether the delay in small pharmacies receiving the upgrades was due to suppliers or pharmacists.

He told EHI Primary Care: “We get mixed messages. Some suppliers say they are not getting sufficient orders from pharmacists and pharmacists say they are not getting delivery dates from suppliers.”

Progress at GP practices appears to be happening faster with around 50% of practices currently enabled and around 250 practices a week receiving the upgrade. . Donohoe said he hoped all practices would be compliant by mid-October.

CfH plans to begin initial implementer sites for release two in the autumn. For more on EPS read EHI Primary Care’s full interview with Donohoe here (link).