EPS turns 18 years old
It is now 18 years since the first electronic prescription was received by a community pharmacy in February 2005.
Back then, the Co-op pharmacy on Scott Street in Keighley, West Yorkshire, received a prescription for atenolol from their local GP practice. Instead of coming into the pharmacy through the front door in the form of a green paper slip in the hands of a patient, the prescription had been sent directly from the GP practice IT system to the pharmacy’s system.
It took more than ten years for the transition to be made from paper to digital prescriptions in primary care, as more GP practices added EPS and additional changes were introduced into prescribing and pharmacy systems. However, last year nearly a billion items were dispensed via EPS.
PSNC continues our work with the NHS England EPS team regarding future arrangements and enhancements to EPS. The future challenges for the EPS team include the rollout of EPS to secondary care prescribers and other care settings and to further improve upon the existing EPS service.
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