The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 278 No 7458 p758
30 June 2007

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News summary

Early implementer sites for release 2 of EPS named

Early implementer sites for release 2 of the electronic prescription service have been announced by the Department of Health and NHS Connecting for Health.

From over a third of primary care trusts that responded to the call for expressions of interest (PJ, 31 March, p359), the following have been selected to go live with release 2 from 1 October: Berkshire East; Leicestershire County and Rutland; Liverpool; Southwark; and Sunderland.

A further 12 PCTs have been selected as a second wave of early implementer sites and will go live after 1 January 2008.

Release 2 of the EPS will involve doctors being able to add digital signatures to electronic prescriptions and patients being able to nominate a pharmacy to dispense their medicines. The early implementer sites aim to ensure that release 2 compliant systems are usable and business processes and training and guidance materials are effective before further deployment.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee said that it will be monitoring the roll-out of release 2 closely to ensure that a level playing field for contractors is maintained as patients start to nominate pharmacies.

A Direction from the Secretary of State for Health needs to be given to a PCT before it can authorise prescribers to issue electronically signed prescriptions. Once this Direction is issued, the PCT is free to give permission to any prescriber in its locality. “It is going to be essential for PCTs to work closely with local pharmaceutical committees and local medical committees to ensure that PCT decisions on granting authority to issue legal electronic prescriptions do not create local commercial imbalances,” the PSNC said.

In contrast, any pharmacy contractor who has a release 2 compliant pharmacy system can dispense electronic prescriptions regardless of whether they are located within the early implementer PCTs’ areas.

The status of release 2 compliant systems will be published on the NHS CfH website