The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7248 p641
10 May 2003

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"Prescribe-a-chat" website wins award

An internet discussion group and website for prescribing advisers in the Highland region of Scotland, known as "Prescribe-a-chat", won a Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists information technology award sponsored by First DataBank Europe.

The Highland Primary Care Trust area covers 10,000 sq miles around Inverness. Advice for prescribers serving the 208,000 population is provided by a team of pharmacists, including some community pharmacists working on a sessional basis. The team had reported problems with communications over the area and with sending out prescribing advice and analyses using e-mail while still complying with National Health Service IT policy.

Mary Struthers, pharmacist prescribing adviser, and Michael Jones, prescribing data support officer, of Highland PCT told a GHP information technology special interest group meeting last month how the "Prescribe-a-chat" website had been set up to provide a secure method of disseminating relevant information. The website is hosted on the Scottish Executive Health Department's Scottish Health on the Web (SHOW) site. It can be accessed from the internet and is not restricted to NHSnet users.

At present around 50 users, including pharmacists, finance staff and prescribing leads at local health care co-operatives, have access. The site includes Scottish Prescribing Analysis data, local prescribing indicators and comparisons against budgets for individual practices. These are provided in common formats and can be included in documents produced by users.

The site includes a discussion forum and will allow experts in various fields to pose questions to stimulate discussion among its users.