NHS North East Essex prepares for EPS R2

Tags: EPS R2 GP GPs NHS North East

30 Oct 2009

NHS North East Essex is preparing patients for the go-live of Release 2 of the national Electronic Prescription Service.

Pharmacies have started to invite patients to nominate the pharmacy at which they would like to receive their prescription. NHS North East Essex expects to dispense its first electronic prescriptions from April 2010.

Pharmacies in its area have started handing out leaflets and asking patients to choose up to three places where they would like to collect their prescriptions, including one pharmacy, one dispensing appliance contractor and - in some circumstances - their dispensing GP practice.

Once EPS R2 rolls out, GPs will send prescriptions electronically to nominated pharmacies, from where patients will be able to pick them up. This should reduce the need for patients, particularly those on repeat prescriptions, to visit their GP surgery to obtain a paper prescription.

Yvonne Benstead, EPS project manager at NHS North East Essex, said: “The introduction of EPS will make life a lot easier for many people, particularly those on repeat prescriptions.

“If people don’t want to ‘nominate’ they can continue to pick up their prescription in the traditional way, and they can change from one system to the other if they find that more suitable.”

In July, Liptrots pharmacy and Calverley Medical Centre in Leeds became the first pharmacy and GP practice in England to use EPS R2.

They are using Cegedim’s Pharmacy Manager and TPP’s SystmOne, the first pharmacy and GP systems to be accredited for EPS R2, which are also in use in North East Essex.

Release 2, which was originally due to go live in October 2007, includes the nomination of pharmacies, electronic prescription signing and the ability for GPs to electronically cancel prescriptions.

A spokesperson for the PCT told E-health Insider Primary Care: “Release 2 will be part of a phased introduction because GPs across North East Essex have very different systems.

"We are in the very early stages at the moment. The earliest first electronic prescriptions are expected to be dispensed in April 2010 and we are hoping that by the end of 2010 the roll-out will be complete.”

Sarah Bruce

EPS R2 goes live in Leeds (29 Jul 2009) (1)
Safety testing imminent at EPS R2 pilot (16 Jul 2009)
Guidance on EPS R2 released (24 Apr 2009)
Pharmacists get access to PDS for EPS R2 (17 Dec 2008)

Reader's Comments

Risky strategy

03 Dec 09 08:12

Is there not a risk in a PCT advocating this approach? Is it not quite likely that asking patients to sign up for nominations at pharmacies potentially months in advance of GP systems being able to send prescriptions electronically runs the risk of the patients not remembering the pharmacy they have nominated? Or as pharmacies compete for trade a patient may end up nominating several pharmacies prior to their GP actually generating an electronic script resulting in confusion over their nominated dispenser at the point when electronic scripts can be generated for them? The approach of collating nominations now could lead to huge problems when EPS Release 2 comes to roll out.

The CFH guidance suggests that a pharmacy should not collect and set nomination for a patient until that pharmacy has a release 2 system installed, they are in a position to explain nomination to a patient, and ideally not until that patient’s GP Practice can send an electronic script for them.

Pharmacies cannot actually set nominations until they have an EPS R2 system in place. Considering that this article was written over a month ago and there are at present no pharmacy suppliers authorised to roll out their systems wholesale the approach being taken by North East Essex appears to be risky. I would not expect other PCTs to follow suit.

Dan Milman