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Have you given up waiting for your local GPs to get involved in the electronic prescription service? You still need to stay prepared, writes Charles Gladwin

While 96 per cent of pharmacies in England have gone live with the electronic prescription system, as of mid-October, only 34 per cent of GP practices had done so. For some pharmacy contractors, who have made the investment but have yet to see real benefits, this disparity is creating a degree of complacency or even scepticism about the value of EPS2.

But with 150,000 patients setting their pharmacy nomination every week, pharmacies need to place a much greater emphasis on patient loyalty, says Andy Charlesworth, Numark’s IT services manager. “Many, particularly larger contractors and some online pharmacies, have already realised this and are making the most of the opportunity to grab business via the nomination process,” he says.

“We believe that some pharmacies are delaying because their local surgery has not upgraded to release two and we are concerned that, in delaying things, independents may be losing out in the nomination process. Patient nomination is crucial – it’s an opportunity for pharmacies to lock in business and strengthen the relationship they have with patients. Independents must therefore act now in capturing nomination requests from patients.”

Patient nomination is crucial – it’s an opportunity for pharmacies to lock in business and strengthen the relationship they have with patients

Shanel Raichaura, director of pharmacy at Rx Systems, sees EPS2 as “a significant game changer for pharmacy because there’s a threat to livelihoods as the patient has to nominate a particular pharmacy. It’s a bun fight to ensure you keep the patient registered to your pharmacy.” He is not surprised that the vast majority of the 10 million-plus patient nominations have taken place in pharmacy. “You want to get ready before the neighbouring GP goes live,” he urges.

Cegedim Rx raises another concern: the need for additional training on top of the basic installation and implementation package. “More and more people are going live now, and it is making people realise that they need to invest more time in the training,” says Clive Eckett, sales and marketing director. Pharmacists can be caught off guard by a GP suddenly announcing the practice is going live – sometimes with less than a week’s notice, he warns. If the pharmacy is not up to speed with the GP practice, patients will re- nominate an alternative pharmacy, and it can then be difficult to get that patient nomination back again.

Security of service

The internet ‘cloud’ is growing in popularity as a means of sharing data remotely, and is being considered for NHS data. However, EPS2 relies on the secure N3 network to link practices and pharmacies to the central electronic database for the NHS, the Spine, and does not go through the cloud. “That’s deliberate, so that the patient data cannot be.”