Healthcare informatics

First hospital trust electronic prescription service system due to be approved in June 2022

The IC24 system, which will be used in secondary care for electronic prescribing, is going through its final assurance stage.…

Electronic prescribing systems should consider patients’ weight for supply of oral paracetamol, concludes report

The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch issued the recommendation after a coroner concluded that a patient was prescribed a dose of oral paracetamol that was too high, which contributed to her death.…

Community pharmacy access to shared patient records ‘not prioritised’

Exclusive: The local health and care record programme will offer priority to GPs and trusts for access to shared care records.…

Full electronic prescribing within five years, Welsh government pledges

The Welsh government aims to replace paper prescriptions and 'wet' signatures in primary care with electronic prescriptions and signatures in the next three to five years.…

Reaching for the cloud: the case for a universal digital patient record

Pharmacists have long called for read-write access to the patient record, with patient consent. In this blog, Clare Morrison, director for Scotland at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, makes the case for going one step beyond: holding patient records in a single, universal data cloud.…

NHS investigation body launches inquiry into medication errors in children

The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch will explore the risks of medication errors occurring, following an incident involving a child aged four years.…

We kept acute clinical pharmacy going while working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic

When a pharmacist at an NHS Lothian hospital needed to shield from COVID-19, a suite of online systems was set up to enable the whole pharmacy team to work from home, if needed.…

Three hospital trusts trial electronic prescription service during COVID-19 pandemic

Three hospital trusts in England have been piloting the electronic prescription service in an effort to “support COVID-19 outpatients” ahead of a wider roll-out.…

What community pharmacy access to shared health and social care records could mean for patient care

Community pharmacies in Dorset could soon have access to system-wide health and social care records. Robin Mitchell, owner of Victoria Park Pharmacy in Dorchester, explains why pharmacists should jump at the opportunity.…

Items dispensed from electronic prescriptions increase by 22% in March 2020

The number of items dispensed through electronic prescribing increased by nearly a quarter in March 2020, according to data published by NHS Business Services Authority.…