EXCLUSIVE

A fault with system supplier Cegedim has left pharmacies around the country unable to download electronic prescriptions for 36 hours. 

The problem began on Wednesday evening and pharmacists told C+D this morning (April 10) it was still ongoing, which was increasing the backlog of work accumulated over the bank holiday weekend. 

Cegedim, which claims to supply more than half of UK pharmacies, told C+D yesterday (April 9) that "all efforts" were being made to rectify the problem, the cause of which was "out of our control". 

“BT made a change, which has for some reason (as yet not explained) affected our data centre,” said Cegedim managing director Simon Driver. “We naturally apologise to all our customers for the disruption.”

Stewart Kelly, superintendent pharmacist at Woodhouse Pharmacy in Sheffield, said the pharmacy had been severely disrupted because it is a “major user” of the electronic prescription service (EPS) - around 60 per cent of its prescriptions arrive electronically.

“We came in expecting to be able to download scripts and it completely didn’t work,” Mr Kelly said. “I had no information from Cegedim other than when I called them at 5.30pm [yesterday].”

Mr Kelly stressed that a continuity plan needed to be put in place to stop EPS problems impacting so severely on pharmacies. “It [responsibility] is always passed back to the pharmacy,” he said.
 

Back-up system needed

David Sharp, owner of D and R Sharp Chemists in South Yorkshire, agreed that pharmacists needed "better back-up systems" if all prescriptions were to become electronic.“The government needs to put some money into it, so we have a back-up when things go wrong,” Mr Sharp said.

Amish Patel, manager of Hodgson Pharmacy in Kent, said his pharmacy was also disrupted by being unable to download electronic prescriptions. “We’ve [had to] transfer everything to paper,” he told C+D. “It disturbs the workflow and, further to that, patients are coming in for medication, but it’s not going to be ready."

James Forshaw, pharmacist at J.H. Williams Chemists in Anfield, said the situation was “frustrating” because the pharmacy "hadn't been able to do anything".

C+D reported yesterday (April 9) that pharmacists had welcomed the Department of Health’s decision to allow electronic prescriptions for schedule 2 and 3 controlled drugs from July onwards. 

Have you experienced problems with EPS this week? 

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