PJ Online | News: ETP must be better than paper forms

The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7178 p839-846
15 December 2001

ETP must be better than paper forms

Simply reproducing the paper prescription system with an electronic version is not enough, according to Mr Chris Town, chief executive of North Peterborough Primary Care Trust.

Speaking at an All-Party Pharmacy Group (APPG) meeting on 12 December, he said: "If all we are doing is creating an electronic version of a piece of paper then it will be a short-term measure. The key message to the Government is that if the benefits of ETP are to be seen then we have to get on with the pilots, roll it out, test the technology, prove the system is safe and secure, and then we can move on and do the next stage."

Introducing a common electronic health record provides a real opportunity to deliver achieve the aims of the pharmacy plan, he said.

"Phase two of ETP is the important bit: we have to end up with pharmacists having access to records." Access to a wider knowledge of what people are talking is important because of an increase in the number of non-prescription medicines available.

The introduction of ETP will improve access to medicines and help medicines management, he said. "If we are not going down the route of pharmacists managing chronic diseases then we are all wasting out time." The real benefits will come later with repeat dispensing, he added.

From a professional point of view, ETP will save time for general practitioners and help integration between doctors and pharmacists. Benefits for the National Health Service include increasing accuracy and reducing waste and fraud.

The introduction of ETP will change the way pharmacists worked. It might not necessarily mean an increase in workload but different work — more clinical and less clerical, Mr Town said.

Dr Cecilia Pyper, national primary care career scientist, department of public health, Oxford University, described work undertaken to investigate patients' views on the use of electronic health records. In gerneral, patients' responses were positive, but concerns exist over security, potential errors and access for carers and parents to records.

"We think that pharmacists' skills and experience are totally underused," she said. She highlighted the following roles for pharmacists that could be helped by the use of electronic records: reviewing drugs to increase clinical- and cost-effectiveness, advising other health care professionals, chronic disease management and supporting self management.