Chief executive of the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA), Duncan Eaton, has formally pledged to work with supply chain standards authority, e.centre, to encourage the adoption of standardised bar coding systems across the whole of the NHS supply. Eaton, who will take a place on e.centre’s supervisory board, believes it is essential that the NHS has standardised descriptions and bar coding systems implemented across the board to curb the vast amount of money being wasted through inefficient processing, leading to waste and loss through human error. "Currently, most healthcare organisations use a wide range of ad hoc, mostly manual systems to identify their medicines and medical products, creating a general lack of communication across the numerous trusts and suppliers," he said. Besides the obvious business case for the adoption of the EAN system, Eaton also highlighted the role of standardized bar coding in the drive to tackle the growing problem of medical errors. The implementation of standardised bar coding will require all medication and medical products to bear EAN.UCC codes including unique identifying information about the drug in a linear bar code as part of the label. The adoption of the system across the NHS will provide a base for electronic communication allowing healthcare professionals to use a hand held scanner with a radio computer link that would automatically highlight any potential problems such as allergies or conflicting medication. Eaton is planning to develop, with the help of e.centre, a national standard which PASA will then drive forward for adoption by the NHS. He hopes to secure some national investment to thoroughly test the system and ensure its compatibility with other IT ventures such as the new electronic care records service.
