EPS passes million scrips milestone

More than a million prescriptions have been transmitted via the Electronic Prescription Service, Connecting for Health has announced.

The agency said the achievement of the electronic transmission of a million prescription messages is a significant milestone in the deployment of the service.

Tim Donohoe, Connecting for Health (CfH) group programme director, added: “Whilst there is much work still to be done, passing the one million mark demonstrates that the system is working well. We will continue to work with patients and healthcare professionals to ensure that the service meets their needs."

A spokesperson for CfH told EHI Primary Care that 4,778 pharmacists are now registered to use the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) and 1128 GP practices have had EPS software upgrades of which 348 are using the service. The health department’s target is for the service, which is being implemented in two releases, to be fully operational by the end of 2007. However it is widely predicted that the target will not be met with only one pharmacy system supplier currently offering a compliant system and only 4% of practices currently using the service.

A spokesperon for CfH told EHI Primary Care that 18,000 prescriptions are now being transmitted via the EPS each day, out of the 1.3 million prescriptions currently generated daily.

Release one of the EPS, which is currently being rolled out from initial implementers to nationwide deployment, still involves a paper prescription although the prescription has a barcode printed on it and the data is transmitted electronically between the prescriber and the dispenser.

So far only AAH, a commercially available pharmacy system supplier, has achieved authority to roll out its systems nationwide together with the in-house system used by Lloyds Pharmacy, the largest community pharmacy operator in the UK.

Donohoe predicted that the first stage of the roll out will gather momentum over the coming weeks as more of the systems required to operate the EPS are granted approval to deploy.

He added: "I am pleased that Lloyds pharmacy have successfully upgraded their system. This is a major step forward in deployment of the service and I know they have worked hard to achieve this. I would encourage GPs and community pharmacists who have not already done so to contact their system suppliers to enquire about upgrading their software. Community pharmacists in particular, may find difficulty in getting an upgraded system if they do not place their orders now rather than waiting until later in the year."

The CfH spokesman said it was expected that the roll out of release one would be completed by the end of the year.

Release two, due to be completed by the end of 2007, will allow the digital signing of prescription messages and the nomination of pharmacies by patients.