Prepare for EPS or face losses, pharmacists warned

A community pharmacy body is warning pharmacists that they face a significant risk to their businesses if they fail to get prepared for the electronic prescription service (EPS).

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA), which represents more than 6,000 pharmacy owners, says many of its members do not yet have capability for release one of the EPS even though release two of EPS is due to start in some areas on 1 October.

The NPA says release two, which will enable GPs to digitally sign prescriptions and allow patients to nominate pharmacies, will mark the start of the transition away from a parallel paper and electronic service to one where the electronic prescription predominates.

The NPA message adds: “When GPs start prescribing under release two in a locality, pharmacists who are not enabled for EPS will be unable to receive and therefore dispense prescriptions. It is therefore very important that members get prepared for EPS by deciding which systems they will use and placing orders with their suppliers.

Gareth Jones, NHS liaison manager for the NPA, added: “This message is particularly important for community pharmacies in the 17 initial implementer sites. If you don’t get connected you run a significant business risk.”

Latest deployment statistics from Connecting for Health as at 23 July show that 5902 practices, about 70% of practices in England, have been technically enabled for EPS and 2922 are actively operating the EPS. A total of 4843 pharmacist systems, about 45% of the total number of community pharmacies in England, have had technical upgrades to the new system, and 3145 are actively operating EPS.

Tim Donohoe, Connecting for Health’s group programme director for EPS, told EHI Primary Care in May that one of the difficulties was that the figures for EPS were biased heavily towards the major multiple pharmacies with smaller pharmacies seemingly less willing or able to take part.

The NPA is inviting any of it members who are having difficulty getting connected to contact the association for advice.

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