The service will replicate the one currently used in England “for the electronic transfer of prescriptions between [general practices] and pharmacies”, Ms Morgan wrote in a statement last week (May 27).

“Officials and programme colleagues are in discussion with NHS Digital in England” about how to roll the service out in Welsh pharmacies following the trial, she said.

“Discussions have started around how this can then be deployed at pace across all GP [surgeries] and pharmacies, and the programme team are working with system suppliers and primary care colleagues to make this possible,” Ms Morgan wrote.

The Welsh government does not “have a list of pharmacies taking part yet”, a spokesperson told C+D today (May 30).

EPS in all Welsh pharmacies over the “next couple of years”

The implementation of an EPS is part of the Welsh government’s digital medicines transformation portfolio – formerly referred to as the ePrescribing programme.

While the whole portfolio might take “between three to five years” to be implemented, the Welsh government expects that primary care prescriptions will be transferred through the EPS service “by default in the next couple of years”, the spokesperson added.

Under its transformation portfolio, the government also hopes patients will be able to nominate their preferred pharmacy” via the NHS Wales app, a functionality that Ms Morgan said “will be available sooner”.

The portfolio will also drive forward “the electronic transfer of [hospital] prescription information on discharge to primary care settings and from outpatients to community pharmacies” in Wales, and establish a national medicines repository for “more seamless transfer of information between primary and secondary care settings”.

Currently, GPs and other clinicians in primary care in Wales produce prescriptions using electronic solutions, but “must print and sign hard copies that are transported to a pharmacy for fulfilment”.

The hard copy prescriptions are archived for reporting by the NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership.

The new programme will complete the digitisation of this process so that paper prescriptions and “wet” signatures are replaced by electronic prescriptions and signatures.

The Welsh government first unveiled plans that would allow pharmacies to directly receive prescriptions electronically from a prescriber in September 2021, following an independent review into ePrescribing in Wales earlier that year.