The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7340 p288
12 March 2005

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Ministers told pharmacists need clinical data

Pharmacists need access to clinical information about patients via the NHS Care Records Service to enable them to carry out new roles such as supplementary prescribing. They will also need access to NHS e-mail addresses to allow effective communication with other members of the primary care team.

These are some of the recommendations made in a report (PDF 160K) to ministers published by the All-Party Pharmacy Group this week, following a recent meeting about implementation of the National Programme for IT (PJ, 26 February, p230).

The report calls for clarification on how private prescriptions and Controlled Drugs will be handled with regard to electronic transmission of prescriptions. “We understand that changes may be made following Dame Janet Smith’s inquiry into the activities of Harold Shipman. We would welcome clarification from the Department of Health on this point.”

Other recommendations in the report are:

· Patients should be free to choose which pharmacy dispenses their prescriptions
· A national clinical champion for pharmacy should be appointed to communicate between NPfIT and the profession
· Cross border arrangements for sending prescriptions and patient information electronically between the home countries should be clarified
· Pharmacists should be able to upload summary information about their contact with patients to the care record