Community Pharmacy Wales (CPW) has warned pharmacy contractors not to submit EPS claims early after concerns had been raised about the practice.
The Welsh negotiator said in recent correspondence from the country’s health boards, there has been “increasing concern” with prescription claims being submitted “before items have been transferred by the pharmacy to the patient”.
It said it creates “a risk” if all prescriptions items are not transferred to the patient and a submission will be “an inappropriate claim for payment”.
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National body Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) had also raised concerns that these early submissions would “prevent that prescription being returned to the spine for dispensing elsewhere” or if the prescriber wants to change the prescription.
It added that an early submission “compromises the integrity of the EPS Tracker” as it would show a patient is “is in receipt of their medication, which could lead to delays in care” such as if the claiming pharmacy is closed.
CPW has encourage contractors to “review their internal processes to ensure compliance” and also “provide assurance that claims reflect medicines supplied” rather than ones just assembled or waiting to be collected.
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Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, Powys Teaching Health Board and Hywel Dda University Health Board told C+D that they had not been alerted to, identified or reported these issues.
But three of the health boards said that CPW’s statement and DHCW guidance “reflect the expectations on all community pharmacy contractors across Wales”.
They reiterated that prescription claims should only be submitted once medicines have been transferred to the patient “in order to ensure accuracy, uphold system integrity, and promote safe patient care”.
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It comes as a new survey revealed that four in 10 pharmacies in Wales “were not profitable” in 2025, as the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) called for a “stabilisation payment” similar to that “offered to GPs”.
In November, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) revealed that it had received “a number of concerns” about electronic prescription service (EPS) pharmacy “nominations and re-nominations without patient consent”.
And Titan PMR’s chief executive launched a petition in December to “ban” technology that allows pharmacies to “auto renominate EPS patients in bulk”.
