MARK THOMAS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
More than 2,500 prescription items have been dispensed at the first electronic prescription service (EPS) test site in Wales since it launched in November 2023.
Wellington Road Pharmacy and Lakeside Medical Centre in Rhyl were the first community pharmacy and GP practice to go live with the EPS on 17 November 2023, using the EMIS Web and Invatech Titan systems.
In a newsletter seen by The Pharmaceutical Journal, the Digital Medicines Transformation Portfolio said that final assurance was expected in mid-March 2024, which will confirm that the two systems involved at the test site are safe to be rolled out across Wales.
In north Wales, Plas Menai GP surgery and Boots Pharmacy in Llanfairfechan, and Gwynan Edwards Pharmacy in Penmaenmawr have been carrying out testing of the EPS and are due to start dispensing items for patients imminently.
If testing is successful, the system will be introduced in Boots stores across Wales as part of the phased roll out of the EPS in spring 2024.
Jenny Pugh-Jones, senior responsible owner of the Primary Care Electronic Prescription Service, told The Pharmaceutical Journal that the dispensing of 2,500 prescription items via EPS in Rhyl was “a significant milestone on the journey to digitalise prescriptions and medicines management in Wales”.
“We are getting positive feedback from staff and from patients who are using electronic prescriptions, and the testing of EPS at a second site in north Wales will now bring real benefits to another community,” she said.
She added that a further seven community pharmacy system suppliers have been awarded funding to develop the technology to support EPS in Wales via the Community Pharmacy System Innovation Fund.
Commenting on the rollout of the EPS, Elen Jones, director for Wales at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), said: “Implementation of a national electronic prescribing solution has been a long-standing priority for us at the RPS in Wales, having been one of our manifesto calls for the last Senedd election in 2021.
“We were delighted when government committed to a programme to deliver electronic prescribing in the months following the election and have been pleased to be a part of the Primary Care Electronic Prescribing Programme Board, helping to steer the significant progress to date, including this exciting milestone at the testing site in Rhyl.”
