Seven organisations have been shortlisted by the Department of Health for the three possible pilots for the electronic transfer of prescriptions (ETP) from surgeries to pharmacies. They are: Clinovia Ltd; ITS Wales; Online Prescriptions Ltd; Pharmacy2u consortium; Security Printing and Systems Ltd; Sema Group consortium; and the Transcript consortium.
The Sema consortium includes Boots the Chemists and Co-operative pharmacies, Transcript has support from Moss pharmacies, Rowlands pharmacies and Lloydspharmacy and the Pharmacy2u consortium includes 17 community pharmacists.
The Department is to pay for the connection of pilot pharmacies and medical practices to the NHSnet, along with costs at the Prescription Pricing Authority and the cost of independent evaluation of the pilots. Suppliers' costs associated with XML messaging are also to be met, as this will be a requirement to ensure that standard messages are sent from prescriber to pharmacy and on to the PPA. No decision has been made on how the roll out of ETP across the National Health Service by 2004 is to be funded.