The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7257 p41
12 July 2003

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DoH: Electronic transmission of prescriptions (more)

ETP decision is expected imminently

A decision on the way forward for electronic transmission of prescriptions (ETP) is expected within a few weeks.

The three ETP pilots ended on 30 June, a spokesman for the Department of Health told The Journal. The pilots were originally scheduled to finish at the end of 2002 but in January this year the DoH announced that they could continue for another six months. However, one pilot, run by the Flexiscript consortia, stopped in April (PJ, 19 April, p535).

The DoH spokesman confirmed that a report evaluating the pilots is expected to be published within the next few weeks. He added: "The vision on ETP is still the same."

The evaluation is being carried out by the Sowerby Centre for Health Informatics at Newcastle and eHealth Horizons in collaboration with the Industrial Statistics Research Unit at the University of Newcastle, the University of Manchester School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and QinetiQ.

The group submitted a report to the Department of Health in April this year. The full contents are not publicly available but the report is known to confirm that ETP is technically viable and that key stakeholders (patients, pharmacists and general practitioners) are likely to find it acceptable.

However, Dr Julian Harrison, of the Pharmacy 2U consortium, said that he had serious concerns over the accuracy of the report. Data had only been collected for a short space of time at the end of last year, but much of the prescription volume had occurred this year. Even the report itself had acknowledged this lack of data was a limitation, he added. "The report contains a lot of opinions and not much fact," he said.

Ewan Davis, chairman of Pharmed, part of the TransScript consortium, expressed similar concerns about the evaluation. However, he pointed out that health minister Rosie Winterton had recently written to the pilot consortia stating that the Government remained committed to the ETP targets. These are that ETP is 50 per cent implemented by the end of 2005 and fully implemented by the end of 2007. "Whatever the evaluation report says, we must be encouraged by this reiteration of the targets," said Mr Davis.

But he stressed: "We need a signed-off specification." Although Mr Davis believes the Government targets are ambitious, he says they can be met so long as the final specification is announced soon. "It's unhelpful to leave us in limbo."