A pilot use of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) in selected integrated urgent care settings has been launched, NHS Digital has announced.
This will mean that patients seeking care out of hours or in urgent care settings can have their prescriptions sent directly to a pharmacy of their choice, rather than relying on paper prescriptions.
According to NHS Digital, the service will free up time for doctors and other health care workers issuing prescriptions and for pharmacists dispensing those prescriptions, meaning there is more time for patient care.
Patients can choose to have their prescriptions dispensed at any suitable community pharmacy. NHS Digital notes that pharmacists and their teams should be aware that they could receive an electronic prescription from an integrated urgent care prescriber involved in the pilot and that they can dispense it in the same way as any other EPS prescription.
The benefits of EPS in integrated urgent care are said to include: more efficient processing of prescriptions and fewer referrals to other professionals and settings, saving time and resource; improved patient experience and outcome; and more face-to-face consultations freed up.
Work is underway to finalise plans to roll out this service across all integrated urgent care settings starting in 2018, following a review of the pilot.
Initially, only sites running Advanced Adastra system (which accounts for the majority of integrated care settings) will have the necessary functionality. NHS Digital is working with other suppliers to develop this functionality in their systems.
The EPS has been rolled out across GP practices since 2009 and due to increasing pressures on integrated urgent care services, NHS Digital has been asked by NHS England to work with integrated urgent care system suppliers to implement the ability to prescribe electronically.
Integrated urgent care includes NHS 111, GP out of hours services, Clinical Assessment Services (CAS), Walk-in Centres, Minor Injuries Units and Urgent Care Centres.
Richard Ashcroft, programme director for digital medicines at NHS Digital, said: “This is an important development which will bring significant benefit to patients in integrated urgent care, building on the time and money that EPS has already saved across primary care.
“Rolling this additional service out will relieve some of the pressures faced by out-of-hours services such as 111, particularly during winter months, and will improve the experience for patients.”
