Electronic prescriptions reach one billion a year

 

Almost one billion prescription items were dispensed electronically in the last 12 months, with less than 1 in 20 still paper-based.

The Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) is now the default method for prescribing and dispensing  prescriptions in primary care in England.

The number of electronic prescriptions sent to community pharmacies has almost doubled in the past five years according to figures highlighted by NHS England to mark the 18th anniversary of the service.

Prescription items issued electronically topped 996 million (95%) in 2021/22, compared with 532 million in 2016/17 when just under half (48%) were still issued on paper.

The total number of prescription items dispensed each year has also grown from 1.02 billion in 2016/17 to 1.04 billion in 2021/22, with 11,400 pharmacies now signed up to using the electronic service.

The system allows clinicians to send prescriptions electronically to a pharmacy of the patient's choice, making the prescribing and dispensing process more efficient and convenient for patients and staff.

Dr Rabani is a GP at Ling House Medical Centre in Keighley, West Yorkshire, where the first electronic prescription was sent 18 years ago. He said:

“The Electronic Prescription Service for us in general practice really has been a game-changer. Gone are the days of spending our lunch breaks signing reams of repeat prescriptions by hand.

“In terms of patient safety, if we change or cancel a prescription we can amend it in the system instead of phoning the pharmacy and making sure the paper slip is destroyed. And it’s been useful for my out-of-hours practice as well. I can look in the system to see the opening hours and addresses of pharmacies to help decide which is the most convenient one for my patient to send their prescription to.”

Rahul Singal, Chief Pharmacy and Medicines Information Officer at NHS England, said:

“When you look at the number of transactions that are made via the service and how much it’s revolutionised practice in general practice and community pharmacy, we’d be pushed to think of another national system that’s had more success.

“Our next focus is to introduce EPS into more care settings, including more health settings such as hospital outpatient departments so the benefits can be realised for even more clinicians and patients across the NHS.”

Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is the first secondary care provider in England to implement EPS.

Dr James Briscoe, Consultant Psychiatrist in their Early Intervention team, said: 

"It is not too dramatic to state that EPS has revolutionised my practice. I can now write and deliver prescriptions in five minutes compared to the time and effort it took to handwrite a prescription from scratch, arrange for it to be collected by the service user or a member of the team or hand deliver it to a pharmacy. A huge time saving with inbuilt safeguards to enable safe prescribing.” 

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RA Emergency Guidance to be extended to end of March 2023

This guidance refers to the use of video calls and scans to verify a persons’ identity.

The Control of Patient Information (COPI notice), on which this emergency guidance was based, ended on 30 September 2022. The guidance date was extended whilst the ‘Apply for Care ID service’ was deployed.

Find out more about the Apply for Care ID service.

If you have a Sponsor, RA Agent or RA Manager role you should be able to access the Apply for Care ID service and start using the service now. 

From 1 April 2023 the only acceptable means of verifying a user’s identity will be:

It's only these 3 services that provide a high confidence in the identity created, which is a requirement from the Government, to access national clinical information and data systems.

If you have any queries about this, contact iamplatforms@nhs.net

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For information: Digital Firearms Marker enabled in EMIS practices from 6 February 2023

A new Digital Firearms Marker will help make firearms licensing safer. The marker will be deployed on 6 Feb 2023 for practices using EMIS Web (EMIS) systems.  

GPs should add the appropriate SNOMED code to a patient's record when they receive notification of a firearms certificate application or when a certificate is granted. This will now create a Digital Firearms Marker on a patient's record.  

If a potentially relevant condition of concern is added to their medical record during the application process or after a certificate has been issued, an alert will pop up. The alert will help enable GPs to determine if the police need to be made aware of the new condition. 

NHS Digital has developed the marker in collaboration with the BMA, RCGP, Department for Health & Social Care, and Home Office. It is scheduled for deployment on Cegedim/Vision systems in March 2023. 

Find more information about the marker, the set of conditions, and what to do when an alert pops up.  

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NHS Digital and NHS England complete merger

 

NHS England and NHS Digital have today legally merged in the first step towards creating a new, single organisation to lead the NHS in England to deliver high-quality services for all.

The move brings the NHS’ national data and technology expertise into one organisation, creating a closer link between the collection and analysis of data to help drive improvement to patient outcomes.

The transformative power of data and digital has remained central to the NHS’ ability to respond to major events – with the online National Booking Service helping drive the world-leading NHS Covid vaccination programme to administer almost 145 million doses.

In addition, the NHS has continued to harness the latest technology to tackle the extreme pressures seen in urgent and emergency care this winter, for example through the expansion of virtual wards and 24/7 system control centres.

The legal merger has been formally confirmed as, following parliamentary approval, the regulations which transfer the functions of NHS Digital to NHS England and abolish NHS Digital, have been made by ministers and come into effect today.

The transfer, which will include all existing protections for data, sees NHS England become the custodian of national health and social care datasets and the single executive non-departmental public body with responsibility for digital technology, data and health service delivery in the NHS.

The merger of NHS Digital and NHS England comes ahead of the incorporation of the body responsible for the education and training of the health workforce – Health Education England – into the new NHS England on 1 April 2023.

The integration of NHS Digital, Health Education England and NHS England will put workforce, data, digital and technology at the heart of plans to transform the NHS, enabling better, more joined-up decision-making at system, regional and national levels, and a more effective and efficient use of collective resources.

As a single, streamlined organisation, the new NHS England will build on the strengths and expertise of its legacy organisations, while avoiding duplicate activities – enabling it to be even more responsive to changing demand and the biggest challenges, priorities and opportunities of the health system.

It is expected that, by the end of 2023/24, the new organisation will be between 30-40% smaller than the current combined size of NHS England, Health Education England and NHS Digital.

The new, more integrated organisation will also support and accelerate the move to greater partnership working through integrated care systems (placed on statutory footing from 1 July 2022), by speaking with a single national voice and modelling effective joint working.

As integration activities continue, to enable the new NHS England to work efficiently as one single new organisation, almost all systems, processes and job roles are due to remain the same until at least April 2023.

NHS England’s Chief Executive, Amanda Pritchard, said: “Digital, data and technology already underpin so much of our personal and professional lives. Harnessing the enormous potential they hold will be key to supporting our continued management of and recovery from the pandemic, delivering on our Long Term Plan, and making services better and more sustainable – crucially in ways that support staff to do their best work, and deliver more convenient services for patients.

“Our colleagues from NHS Digital bring a wealth of experience, knowledge and expertise, and a track record of delivering major data and digital projects and services, which will continue to be invaluable in our aim to help the NHS transform and improve the health and care of the people it serves.”

Simon Bolton, Interim CEO at NHS Digital, said: “Our merger with NHS England creates the opportunity to put digital at the heart of the NHS and build on what we’ve already achieved at NHS Digital.

“Technology and data are helping to improve people’s lives every day, whether ordering a repeat prescription through the NHS App, getting the latest health advice from the NHS website, or arranging a Covid vaccine using our national online booking service.

“We’re proud to be making a real difference to both colleagues in the NHS and the people that it serves.

“The merger will help us continue that journey as one central organisation, using digital to transform the NHS and provide the best care possible for patients.”

Health and Social Care Secretary, Steve Barclay, said: “New technology and better data about how our health and care system is working at the frontline is key to improving care for patients.

“Bringing the latest digital tech into the heart of the NHS will help join up services and streamline decision making, boosting our recovery from the Covid pandemic and reducing waiting times.”

More information about the directions given by the Secretary of State can be found on the NHS Digital website.

More information about how data will be protected and safely used in the new NHS England can be found on the NHS England website.

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