Electronic prescribing moves forward
Electronic prescribing in hospitals in England is likely to start in 2006, two years earlier than previously planned. The Department of Health has announced that it is working with the local service providers of the National Programme for Information Technology to move forward the drug prescribing element.
This announcement followed the publication of a report on the implementation of guidance on the use of drugs for treating cancer, by Mike Richards, the National Cancer Director. The report concluded that there are variations
in the way cancer drugs are prescribed across the country. Professor
Richards suggested that to overcome this, a mechanism to facilitate prospective
audit and feedback should be introduced, as this would have a major influence
on standardisation of usage across the country. To achieve this, he said
that it is essential that every hospital which provides a chemotherapy
service to have electronic prescribing in place.
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Hospital Pharmacist