Scotland's acute medication service to start in July
Details of the acute medication service (AMS) — one of the four core services in the new community
pharmacy contract in Scotland — are to be published this week.
AMS involves dispensing prescriptions for acute conditions, plus provision
of any associated advice. The difference from current arrangements is
that AMS is based on electronic transfer of prescriptions (ETP) between
GPs and community pharmacists, plus onward transmission of prescription
data to the Practitioner Services Division for
payment.
There will not be a single deadline for implementing AMS; instead it
will be phased in over the coming months. The first stage is for GP practices
to update their computer systems, a process that has already started.
Next, new pharmacy computer systems that can deliver electronic AMS (eAMS)
will be tested. This is due to start in July and will take six to eight
weeks.
Roll-out of eAMS will follow in September, with the expectation that
nearly all pharmacies will be operating eAMS by Christmas.
Bill Scott, chief pharmaceutical officer, Scottish Executive, said: “eAMS
represents the next step in the ePharmacy programme. It starts to bring
benefits into the prescribing, dispensing and reimbursement processes
by using electronic data and removing some of the reliance on paper.
For example, improved accuracy in the transfer of information from a
GP practice to a pharmacy, reduced keying time in the pharmacy and fewer
chances of interpretation errors. All of these improve patient safety.”
How AMS will work is outlined in an NHS circular, due to be published
this week (see Panel). An eAMS implementation resource pack will follow
in the summer.
How AMS will work
Once software for eAMS has been installed, GP computer systems
will produce prescriptions with two new features: a bar code on
the
left hand side, and the UK dictionary of medicines and devices
(dm+d) code under each item.
When a prescription is printed, an electronic version will be
sent to the central ePharmacy Message Store (which already exists
for
the electronic minor ailment service).
In the pharmacy, the bar-coded prescription is scanned, which retrieves
the prescription data from the ePharmacy Message Store. These data
automatically fill the fields on the pharmacy system’s dispensing
screen. When the pharmacist has checked the details, a label can
be printed and an electronic dispensing message is sent back to
the ePharmacy Message Store.
Prescriptions are submitted to the Practitioner Services Division
for payment as usual. PSD will scan the bar-coded prescriptions,
which allows the prescribing and dispensing information to be retrieved
from the ePharmacy Message Store. This process will be known as
ePay.
Paper prescriptions remain the legal prescription under the new
system. In addition, prescriptions other than GP10s (eg, nurse
prescriptions),
will not be included in eAMS until a later stage so these will
continue to be processed manually. |
Alison Strath, principal pharmaceutical officer, Scottish
Executive, commented: “eAMS is based on a pilot service which was
successfully trialled in NHS Ayrshire and Arran where in excess of one
million ETP
prescriptions were issued by a number of GP practices. The concept has
received very strong support from both the Scottish Pharmaceutical General
Council and the GPs' negotiating body.”
SPGC is writing to pharmacy contractors about the new contract next week.
Martin Green, SPGC chairman, said: “I am delighted with the enthusiasm
with which Scottish contractors have embraced the pharmaceutical care
services contract. … We are comfortable, at this point in time, with
the direction of travel for AMS and CMS.”
Current transitional remuneration arrangements will remain in place until
the introduction of the final core service, the chronic medication service
(CMS). CMS is expected to start in early 2008, once ETP has been established
under eAMS.
Discussions are taking place between the Scottish Executive and SPGC
regarding the incentive payments for implementing eAMS. |
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