Pharmacy IT developments in Wales to be phased in
IT upgrade details are expected in May |
Development of pharmacy IT links in Wales will take place in phases, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Welsh Executive explains in its spring newsletter.
The decision to stagger the introduction of the IT programme was taken
in order to account for the differences between the architecture of Connecting
for Health in England and Informing Health Care in Wales. In fact, two
independent programmes will cover IT developments in the NHS in Wales.
The development of the single patient record will be addressed by the
NHS in Wales Informing Health Care programme, which will examine the
IT requirements of the two-way flow of medicines information between
primary and secondary care.
The other IT requirements of primary care, including community pharmacy,
will be the responsibility of the Welsh Assembly Government, which will
roll out changes in three phases.
Phase one will establish the necessary IT infrastructure, including hardware
and software upgrades, connectivity and access of community pharmacies
to e-mail and to the NHS in Wales’s website.
Phase two will develop an interim solution for the electronic transmission
of prescriptions, through mechanisms such as bar codes on paper forms,
which are used in Northern Ireland, and the electronic transmission of
claims to the Prescribing Services Unit in Cardiff.
Phase three will involve full implementation of ETP in Wales, in collaboration
with Informing Health Care’s development of single patient records.
Further details about the phases are expected to be announced by the
information services division next month. Updates on developments from
Informing Health Care and the information services division of the WAG
will be posted on the Welsh Executive website |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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