Shutterstock.com
Digital-only prescriptions will be introduced across England from November 2019, the pharmacy minister Jo Churchill has announced.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said the electronic prescription service (EPS) could save the NHS up to £300m by 2021.
Announcing the rollout on October 19, Churchill said the introduction was a “critical part of a wider digital overhaul of prescriptions for all patients in England, which will increase efficiencies and improve patient safety”.
The EPS is currently in its fourth pilot phase, and NHS Digital’s programme director for digital medicines, Richard Ashcroft, said in August 2019 that it has already had led to 68% of all prescriptions being issued electronically across England.
The DHSC said the national rollout will mean that ‘almost all’ prescriptions will be processed electronically, but patients will still be able to choose to have a paper prescription that they can have dispensed at any pharmacy.
Patients receiving electronic prescriptions have to nominate a pharmacy from where they want to receive their prescription.
