Just 110 practices live with EPS2

The roll-out of the Electronic Prescription Service Release 2 to GP practices continues to lag, with just 110 practices live with the system 20 months after the first deployment.

However, the Department of Health expects a “positive shift” to the use of EPS R2 in 2012, with two more of the main GP systems suppliers due to get full roll-out approval within weeks.

EPS R2 will allow all practices in England to produce prescriptions electronically. These are digitally signed and sent to the pharmacy chosen, or nominated, by the patient.

As of 22 March, just 110 GP practices had EPS R2, compared to 8,118 practices – 97% – that have Release 1.  Less than 2% of GP practices in England yet have EPS R2.

In contrast, 3,698 pharmacy sites – about a third of the total – are now ready to start using EPS R2.

EPS R2 was originally due for roll-out in 2007, but the first deployment at a practice and pharmacy was not until July 2009 in Leeds.

To date, around 450,000 prescriptions containing more than 1m items have been dispensed using EPS R2.

About 250,000 patient nominations for their medicines to be dispensed at a designated pharmacy have also been set for EPS R2.

A March NHS bulletin shows only EMIS Web and InPractice have full roll-out approval for the system gained in March and September last year.

EHealth Insider understands, however, that approval is also imminent for both Microtest and TPP.

A statement from Microtest said; “We have been through the accreditation process and we are expecting FRA approval at the next NHS CFH Programme Delivery Board meeting on 3 April.”

A spokesman for iSoft said EPS 2 was to be delivered in Synergy 3.0, which it planned to have deployed in first of type sites by the end of 2012.

One year ago, the DH stopped any more primary care trusts from applying to take part in EPS R2, blaming slow progress from system suppliers.

A DH spokesperson told EHI this month that work was continuing with system suppliers to ensure that the service is rolled out as soon as possible.

“Good progress has been made so far and we expect there to be a positive shift this year in the use of EPS R2," she said.

Six pharmacy suppliers have full rollout approval with just Helix Health and Pharmasys yet to be approved. They are expected to get approval in April and June this year respectively.

A spokesperson for Cegedim Rx said the company had experienced an increase in demand for EPS R2, particularly over the last few months.

“Over half of our customers have placed an order and a good proportion of these are ready to start processing EPS R2 prescriptions,” she said.

The system’s message dynamics module sends voice or text messages to patients to remind them when their prescription is due and inform them when it is ready to collect.

The service also has a new consent form to allow Pharmacy Manager customers to secure patient nominations at the same time that patients consent to the Message Dynamics service.

The Old Pharmacy Emsworth manager Patrick Leppard uses Cegedim Rx and went live with EPS R2 a couple of months ago.

He said it had been an easy transition so far, including getting staff issued with smartcards which was done by the primary care trust.

Leppard said the pharmacy did not have any patient nominations yet because none of the local surgeries have EPS R2

“I think it’s the right decision to be live before the GPs, at least we are ready for them when they do,” he added.

“EPS R2 now seems to be rolling out nationally, I don’t know if that’s going to be in the next three months of the next couple of years, but I can’t see it being any longer than that,” said Leppard.

“It’s been an awfully long time coming, but I hope it will be good when it eventually arrives and I’m looking forward to using it.”

In the case of EMIS, EPS R2 requires the practice to have switched to EMIS Web, something only 10% of the approximately 4,000 EMIS practices in the country have yet done.

EMIS was given full roll-out approval for the EPS R2 module of its EMIS Web system in March 2011. The company says that since then 24 GP practices have gone live with the software and it has orders from a further 354 EMIS Web users.

An EMIS spokesperson said: “Deciding to go live with EPS R2 functionality is not just a practice decision, but requires the involvement of a number of stakeholders including PCTs and local pharmacies.

Ultimately, the speed of uptake depends on decisions made by this wider group.”