GPs are to be asked to accept software for electronic transmission of prescriptions as soon as possible as part of a Department of Health (DH) drive for rapid adoption of the service.
John Bacon, the DH’s Group Director of Health and Social Care Delivery, and the senior responsible officer for the National Programme for IT, wrote to strategic health authorities (SHAs) on Friday setting out the health department’s latest requirements of SHAs and primary care trusts on ETP.
He told SHAs: “The service [EPS] is already available and we are now aiming for a rapid take-up.”
Connecting for Health has negotiated an agreement with three of the leading GP suppliers, EMIS, InPractice Systems and iSoft, that software for release one of the electronic prescription service will be provided as a free upgrade to GP software if an integrated Choose and Book upgrade has been ordered.
In his letter Bacon tells SHAs and PCTs to “maximize the opportunity” this agreement creates to activate ETP software in general practices while working “proactively” to register pharmacy contractors with smartcards. He adds that SHA activity on ETP will be performance managed.
The letter from Bacon includes a link to additional guidance for SHAs and PCTs on the Connecting for Health website. This says that The Phoenix Partnership’s SystmONE has already been widely deployed by Accenture in the North East Cluster and is progressing in the Eastern Cluster and that EMIS and In Practice Systems are likely to have systems ready for wider deployment within the next few days.
The guidance adds: “Unless there are exceptional local issues or concerns, the free upgrade should be accepted, contact with practices facilitated and permission for activation should be granted as quickly as possible. This is likely to require a minimal level of communication with GP practices to ensure that they are aware of the changes.”
Unlike Choose and Book electronic transmission of prescriptions is expected to be broadly welcomed in general practice. Dr Paul Cundy, joint chair of the GPC/RCGP IT committee, told EHI Primary Care that he would encourage GPs to accept the software. He added: “ETP is going to benefit everyone including patients and GPs.”
Dr Cundy said that although the ETP software would be bundled with the Choose and Book software GPs would be quite free to use ETP without using Choose and Book. He said GP2GP record transfer would be added to the menu of options in the same bundle when it becomes available for widespread deployment.
The software available to GP practices will support release one of ETP which is designed to set up the technical infrastructure for ETP before more fundamental changes to the handling of prescriptions is introduced in release two. In release one paper prescriptions will continue to operate as they do now, except with the addition of a barcode, and electronic messages containing the information on the prescription will be sent in parallel.
Russell Blackmore, IT director of InPracticeSystems, told EHI Primary Care that InPS is agreeing a rollout plan with selected PCTs that have expressed a desire to be early implementers.
He added: “The Cegedim pharmacy businesses Cegedim Rx and Enigma Health are included in these plans to deliver end-end ETP messaging to pharmacy.”
Blackmore said InPS hopes to complete the majority of the technical implementation of integrated Choose and Book software in practices by the end of the financial year in March 2006.
He added: “ETP R1 will be switched on when practices are trained for CAB rollout. For practices already technically capable and trained for CAB, a remote dial in by InPS staff will enable. No additional training is required as these practices will be familiar with national services.”
Sean Riddell, deputy managing director of EMIS, said EMIS had authority to deploy its ETP software and would now begin to roll it out.
He said that while the technical installation of Choose and Book software was going ahead “albeit with quite significant technical hiccups which are nothing to do with EMIS” many practices had yet to make time for training.
Training for practices focuses on using the underlying infrastructure and will apply equally to Choose and Book, ETP and GP2GP.
iSOFT declined to comment on its rollout plans for Choose and Book and ETP.
Guidance from Connecting for Health emphasises that for release one there is no need to coordinate the go live of all GP and community pharmacies in an area within the same timeframe. It also says that prescribers will need “little if any training” in addition to what is needed for Choose and Book.
It says further guidance from Connecting for Health on registering pharmacy contractors for smartcards will be available shortly.
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