Patients give approval to ETP repeat prescriptions
Patients using the repeat prescriptions service which is part of Pharmacy2U’s
electronic transmission of prescriptions pilot find the service helpful
and convenient, according to a survey carried out by the company.
As part of its ETP pilot, Pharmacy2U’s own computer software identifies
patients likely to need a repeat prescription in the immediate future
(PJ, 24 August, p242). These patients are contacted by Pharmacy2U’s
customer service operators and asked if they want their repeat prescriptions
ordered electronically for them. If requested, prescriptions are ordered,
dispensed and then dispatched by registered mail to patients’ homes.
During one week in July, customer services asked 100 randomly selected
patients, who had been using the service for at least one month, for their
views on the service. All but one said that they had received their medicines
when they were needed. The other patient had had waited five days for
a supply but had not run out of medicine. The patient continues to use
the Pharmacy2U service. Asked how helpful the home delivery service was,
over 90 per cent described it as helpful or very helpful. Patients also
believed that they had enough information to take their medicines correctly,
despite not having face-to-face contact with the medicines’ supplier.
Again, nearly all patients agreed or strongly agreed that ordering repeat
prescriptions from a pharmacy was more convenient than ordering them from
their doctor’s surgery. Being reminded that a repeat prescription
might need to be ordered was also seen as helpful or very helpful by most
patients.
Dr Julian Harrison, commercial director of Pharmacy2U, said that reminding
patients that they might need further supplies of medicines is a way of
reducing the pressure on both general practitioners, by avoiding visits
for new prescriptions, and pharmacists, by avoiding any need to make emergency
supplies. He said that prescribers describe short notice requests for
prescriptions to be a frequent and irritating occurrence that they would
like reduced.
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