English NHS urged to adopt Welsh EPS

A pharmacy body is calling for NHS Connecting for Health to adopt the Welsh model for electronic transfer of prescriptions, in place of Release 2 of the Electronic Prescription Service.

Numark, a support organisation representing 2,500 community pharmacies, said the experience of its members has shown that the Welsh 2DRx project was working much more effectively than EPS R2.

Numark’s IT steering committee said it was impressed with the ease with which Wales was coping with 2D electronic prescriptions.

While its members in England involved in EPS R2 pilots were struggling to deal with 2,000 prescriptions a community pharmacy involved in the Welsh trial had processed 30,000.

Andy Charlesworth, Numark’s IT services manager, said that pharmacists in England were frustrated by the slow pace of roll-out of EPS R2.

CfH had originally hoped to launch initial implementer sites in 2007, but three years later only nine pharmacies are using EPS R2 – although one pharmacy system, Cegedim Rx’s Pharmacy Manager, was approved for limited roll-out last month.

Charlesworth told EHI Primary Care: “There is a lot of frustration because there are so many factors dependent on rolling out systems that it has become like walking through treacle.

"As well as pharmacy system compliance you need to have a GP with a compliant system, a practice that is willing to take part and be in area where it is not going to cause competition issues.”

Charlesworth said the IT steering group acknowledged that EPS R2 offered functionality not available through the Welsh 2D barcoding system, such as nomination of pharmacy, but said its simplicity was part of its attractiveness.

He added: “The Welsh system is simple but effective. All of the information is included in the barcode, so there are no potential keying errors.

"Yet there are no problems with download times, which members using EPS R1 are experiencing. And with the Welsh model, you have still got the piece of paper if there is a problem with the IT.”

A Department of Health spokesman said: "It is not appropriate to compare Wales’ 2D electronic prescriptions and the English Electronic Prescription Service, which has been designed to bring about different benefits.

"EPS will reap the same data-related benefits as Wales’ 2D electronic prescriptions, but will also facilitate functions such as electronic repeat dispensing and the ability for patients to nominate a dispenser, which promote choice and convenience for patients, as well as enabling prescribers to cancel electronic prescriptions, thereby enhancing safety."

Numark’s IT steering committee also called for a debate on access to patient records for pharmacists.

Charlesworth said the committee felt that it would be increasingly importance for pharmacists to demonstrate the value they could add to patient care and two way access to some parts of the GP record would be needed to do that.

He added: “Pharmacists need a means of communicating with the health record if they are going to pick up the care of some patients and make sure that information is available at GPs’ fingertips.”