Incentive payments to be made for ETP in Scotland
Incentive payments are being offered in Scotland to encourage pharmacists to process prescriptions electronically. The aim of the payments is to encourage the introduction of the electronic transmission of prescriptions (ETP).
Details of the new payments were announced in an NHS circular published
this week (PDF 90K). It says that the payments will be based on
the number of prescription forms (not items) processed electronically.
The first 500 ETP forms a pharmacy processes electronically in any one
month will attract a supplementary fee of 5p per form. Any additional
ETP forms will receive 2p per form, with no upper limit.
The circular states that the payments will be made until the chronic
medication service has been introduced. At that time, it will become
a contract requirement for all ETP forms to be processed electronically.
Payments will be on offer from September when the roll-out of ETP in
community pharmacies is scheduled to begin.
Community Pharmacy Scotland says the payments are good news but it flagged
up a concern that contractors will not benefit if their pharmacy computer
supplier is slow at providing ETP software.
Alex MacKinnon, head of corporate affairs at CPS, said: “We welcome
the payments and encourage contractors to engage in the new ETP system.
Our only concern is the ability of some patient medication record system
suppliers to achieve the ETP deadlines.”
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