Scottish e-prescription claims hit 60 per cent
More than 60% of payment claims for acute prescriptions in Scotland will be made electronically by May, according to the Scottish Government. The health department’s primary care division has released details of its latest incentive scheme for community pharmacies, to encourage take up of electronic claims. Pharmacists will be able to claim £450 when more […]
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SCR access widens again
Community pharmacists, end of life care teams and ambulance staff will gain access to the Summary Care Record in a series of pilot projects over the next few months, NHS Connecting for Health has revealed. The expansion in the types of NHS staff who can access the SCR will be piloted in early adopter primary […]
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Here was the news for 2008
The past 12 months in primary care IT have seen the implementation of a scheme to secure GP IT system choice, increasing numbers of GP records transferred electronically and a new consent model introduced for the NHS Summary Care Record. Less successfully, 2008 also saw the disappearance of one local service provider, the government seemingly […]
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Further ETP progress in Scotland
Four out of five GPs and community pharmacists are now enabled for the electronic transfer of prescriptions in Scotland, according to the ePharmacy Programme. A recent update on progress with ETP says 80% of GPs and pharmacists can use ETP for acute prescriptions and an estimated 3.5m electronic prescriptions are being generated each month. Scotland […]
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Eclipse is phased out
Torex, the owner of the Eclipse pharmacy system, has announced that it is to dicontinue the development of the product and cease drug data updates with immediate effect. Eclipse will no longer seek compliance for Release 2 of the Electronic Prescription Service. It was the second pharmacy system to achieve Release 1 accreditation in 2005, when it […]
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NI completes barcode presciptions project
Northern Ireland has announced that it has successfully completed its 2D barcoded prescription project. The Electronic Prescribing and Eligibility System (EPES) was launched just over two years ago, when a £6.8m contract was awarded to Hewlett-Packard to provide 2D bar-coded prescriptions to counter fraud. The system works by printing paper prescriptions with a two-dimensional barcode […]
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Pharmacists get access to PDS for EPS R2
Community pharmacists are to be issued with new smartcards to give them access to the Personal Demographics Service. NHS Connecting for Health and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee have released guidance on smartcard arrangements for Release 2 of the Electronic Prescription Service, which CfH expects to go live in 2009. More than 20,000 pharmacists already have […]
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DH publishes EPS release two statutory directions
The Department of Health has published statutory directions for release two of the Electronic Prescription Service, which it hopes will start to go live in early 2009. The directions mean GP practices in the 17 early adopter PCTs can use the business processes introduced in release two including issuing prescriptions with electronic signatures, electronic cancellation […]
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Patients divided on pharmacy records
Patient opinion is divided over whether pharmacists should have access to electronic records, with more than a quarter opposing such a move. A survey by the Patients Association found that more than 50% of patients are willing for their electronic records to be seen by pharmacists, but that just over 25% are strongly opposed to the idea. […]
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Guidance aims to boost use of EPS release one
Pharmacy bodies and Connecting for Health have teamed up to issue new guidance for pharmacists on release one of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) in an attempt to boost take up of the service.
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