SIMON DRIVER, managing director, Cegedim Rx Ltd, replies:

Mr Phillips has unfortunately presumed that his pharmacy is ready for EPS simply because he has obtained a smartcard from his local primary care trust. This is merely one stage he needs complete and which is under his control.

We at Cegedim Rx, as well as other system suppliers, have needed to achieve “Technical authority to deploy” as well as “Clinical authority to deploy” accreditation for our software from Connecting for Health, which we have only recently been awarded for both our Nexphase and Pharmacy Manager products. We are one of only two companies that have been awarded this to date and other suppliers are still awaiting accreditation, which is possibly weeks or months away.

During this period, we also have had to source CfH-authorised aggregated N3 suppliers for our customers. These suppliers can provide the N3 connection which pharmacists also need to communicate with the EPS. The suppliers have had to demonstrate a high level of security to the information governance department of CfH and we have then had to enter into commercial terms with them on behalf of our customers. Cegedim now has two service providers to offer a choice of connection to its customers.

While all this was under way, we needed to ensure that our customers were upgraded to robust “business critical” hardware to ensure that their systems could deal with all the options that the EPS solution will provide. Furthermore we needed to update hardware configuration with smartcard readers and barcode scanners for the service.

Logistically, we also need to ensure that we roll out the EPS software to all our customers, order the N3 connection, which has a six- to eight-week lead time, install the separate telephone line, install the necessary router, and then carry out the “end point registration” over the N3 connection with the smartcard to register the pharmacy as being valid. This is the process that all other system suppliers will also have to carry out.

As the market leading supplier, we have the largest number of pharmacies to install EPS software into and logistically this requires significant planning. We are also aware that the end of November and December are the busiest times of the year for trading within the pharmacy.

Cegedim Rx is fully committed to the EPS project and to ensuring that its customers are able to use this service as soon as possible.