Nottingham University has been awarded £750,000 to evaluate Connecting for Health’s Electronic Prescription Service.
The two year evaluation, conducted in collaboration with the London School of Economics and the University of London School of Pharmacy, will look at whether the system benefits patients and the NHS. The research will be led by Professor Tony Avery, Professor of Primary Care from Nottingham University Medical School and an expert in prescribing in primary care.
Professor Avery said: “The current system does work. But if you look at it in detail, the inevitable conclusion is that there must be a better way, a more efficient way, of issuing repeat prescriptions.”
The study will incorporate a large-scale before-and-after study to determine whether the new system results in a reduction in dispensing errors.
The first release of EPS is currently being used to prescribe up to 24% of daily prescriptions but less than 1% are being dispensed electronically. Release two, which will introduce nomination of pharmacies and digital signing of prescriptions, is now due to start live testing in spring or summer this year.
Joe Fernandez