E-prescribing round table report
The acute sector can learn from primary care when it comes to deploying e-prescribing, a round table discussion has concluded. The round table, jointly organised by E-Health-Insider and the British Computer Society’s Health Informatics Forum, acknowledged that prescribing in hospitals and prescribing in primary care are very different. However, participants in the event, sponsored by […]
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Doctors and pharmacists join smartcard critics
With its rollout coming closer, critics of the German smartcard project are once again becoming louder. Three regional political representative bodies of doctors, dentists and pharmacists are now supporting an anti-smartcard alliance. The “Stoppt die e-Card” alliance was launched in January this year and is a rather diffuse conglomerate of civil rights organisations, regional interest […]
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Half of Scottish prescriptions sent electronically
Over half of all NHS prescriptions issued in Scotland are now sent electronically, latest figures show. Since the start of electronic transfer of prescriptions (ETP) in Scotland in January 2008, 7.72 million prescriptions have been sent electronically. In July this figure reached 1.955 million — more than 50% of all the prescriptions issued. ETP is […]
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DH gives go-ahead for EPS Release 2
A regulatory impact assessment has given the green light to the next stage of the Electronic Prescriptions Service – one of the national projects being undertaken by NHS Connecting for Health. The assessment considered whether the government should revert to paper prescriptions or the EPS Release 1, in which electronic messages are attached to paper […]
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NHS Direct wins award for prescription pilot
NHS Direct’s Evelina Children’s Hospital information prescription pilot project has been awarded the 2008 Ask About Medicines Award for ‘Excellence in improving communication between healthcare professionals and patients or medicine users’. The Evelina Children’s Hospital project was designed to start changing the situation of a lack of information around medicines prescribed to children, and to […]
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New EPS clinical director appointed
Dr Manpreet Pujara, one of Connecting for Health’s national GP clinical leads, has been appointed as clinical director for the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS). Dr Puajara, a GP in Rochester, Kent, took over as GP clinical lead alongside Dr Peter Short in January and will now act as clinical director for the EPS as well […]
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Latest BNFC interfaces with NHS dm+d
The new online edition of the latest BNF for Children – BNFC 2008 – will include a new interface to the NHS Dictionary of Medicines and Devices (dm+d). The BNF says this is intended to provide healthcare professionals with seamless access to BNFC content on the internet using NHS dm+d codes, “helping them to make […]
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NLH to close clinical answers website
The National Library for Health (NLH) is to close its online clinical question and answer service this week despite protests from its users. The Primary Care Question Answering Service has handled more than 6,000 queries from GPs, pharmacists and other primary care staff since it was set up in 2004 but will cease operation from […]
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Caution urged on EPS release two contracts
Community pharmacists have been warned to take care when signing contracts for systems to support release two of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) as some pharmacies have been waiting more than two years for release one systems. The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) said it had been contacted by pharmacists who had signed up for […]
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Cegedim Rx launches patient txt messaging
Pharmacy systems supplier, Cegedim Rx are to launch a new patient messaging system called Message Dynamics as part of Pharmacy Manager and Nexphase systems. The communications tool has been designed with feedback from the Cegedim Rx User Group and allows pharmacists to communicate directly with their patients via telephone or SMS text about their medications. […]
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