No evidence that PCTs slow to issue smartcards, says NHS CfH
Pharmacy contractors should inform their supplier or NHS
Connecting for Health if primary care trusts are slow to issue smartcards, Tim Donohoe, group programme director for the National Programme for IT, told The
Journal earlier this week. However, he added that NHS CfH has not detected any particular evidence that PCTs have not been forthcoming with smartcards.
Sue Sharpe, chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating
Committee commented late last year that only a handful of community pharmacists
had been issued
with smartcards and the delay meant that pharmacists
could find themselves paying for electronic connection costs even though
they could not take part in the electronic prescription service (PJ,
17 December 2005, p733).
“Our impression is that while some PCTs may be faster than others
in terms of getting ready [for the EPS], everybody does seem to be moving
in the
general direction,” Mr Donohoe said. NHS CfH is starting to monitor
how many smart cards are being issued, and within the next couple of
weeks it hopes to obtain a monthly figure of how many cards have been
issued and where.
“That will give us the ability to go back to particular PCTs and
say why haven’t you issued any, especially if suppliers bring to
our attention the fact that they are doing upgrades in an area and smartcards
aren’t
available,” he explained. He added that if there are resource issues
within the PCTs, NHS CfH is asking them to give priority to pharmacies
where implementations are planned. |
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Pharmaceutical Journal
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