The electronic prescription service (EPS) could be the "Trojan horse" that allows pharmacists to access patient records, according to a leading academic and pharmacist.

Community pharmacy was "very clearly on the agenda" to connect to IT systems across the NHS and EPS was a way for pharmacy to start to gain access to information from GPs and hospitals, said Professor Nick Barber, who co-authored the final EPS evaluation report.

But the service needed "a push" to promote it to GPs, who did not realise the system could save their clerical staff time, Professor Barber told C+D last week (February 6).

EPS needed "a push" to promote it to GPs, who did not realise the system could save them time, said EPS evaluation report author Nick Barber	More on the EPS Video: Are pharmacists benefiting from the electronic prescription service? Lack of collaboration undermining EPS's potential, report claims Pharmacists must educate patients about EPS, independents warn
	GPs had been distracted by the NHS reforms, with the creation of "super groups of GP practices" taking their attention away from EPS, said Professor Barber, who is director of research at charity The Health Foundation.

The repeat dispensing service was not convenient for every patient under every circumstance, but it was a "safe and sound" system that offered pharmacists opportunities to "think about how they do their work", Mr Barber stressed.

GPs and pharmacists needed to work collaboratively to improve EPS, according to the evaluation report published last month (January 31). But the two professions had yet to achieve the level of cooperation that occurred between doctors and pharmacists in hospitals, he said.

"We need to recognise how busy both sides are and that there's a middle line that allows us to improve the quality of care for patients [and] improve the working life of health professionals," he added.

The benefits of EPS for most stakeholders, including pharmacists, were weak and there was little evidence to convince GPs it was worth engaging with, according to researchers from UCL School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham and London School of Economics who wrote the evaluation report.

Latest figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre revealed that 17 per cent of GP practices and 92 per cent of pharmacies in England had upgraded to EPS.