Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) last week (October 19) announced that “some GP practices and community pharmacies in every health board in Wales” are now able to access EPS.
This development removes “the need for a paper form” and allows prescriptions to be “tracked from the practice to the dispenser”, DHCW said.
Read more: Electronic prescription service ‘approved’ for rollout across Wales
According to DHCW, enrolling in the EPS is simple – patients must “simply tell staff at their GP practice or chosen pharmacy or dispenser that they would like to use the service”.
EPS lead for DHCW Jenny Pugh-Jones said that the government body is “working hard to roll it out to every community across Wales as quickly and safely as possible”.
“To date, 15 GP practices and 58 pharmacies in Wales are using EPS and more than 160,000 prescription items have been dispensed via the service,” she added.
“Modernising healthcare delivery”
Lead pharmacist for primary care and community pharmacy at Hywel Dda University Health Board Owain Williams said that the implementation of EPS is “one of the biggest changes to prescribing practice for years”.
EPS will “minimise delays” and “contribute to the overall improvement of healthcare services” in Wales, he said.
It “represents a significant leap forward in modernising healthcare delivery”, Williams added.
Read more: Electronic prescriptions pilot launched in Wales ahead of January rollout
This is the first significant update on the rollout of EPS in Wales in six months.
Pharmacy technology supplier Invatech Health revealed in April that its EPS software had become the first and only service approved for use in Welsh pharmacies after “successful testing”.
The software was created in collaboration with DHCW and aims to help with “more efficient prescribing, improved stock control, less paper use and reduced risk of errors”, it said at the time.
Read more: Rollout of Welsh electronic prescription service could begin this summer
A Welsh EPS pilot was first launched in just one GP practice and pharmacy in Rhyl, north-east Wales, in November last year.
Meanwhile, the first EPS prescription was sent in England 19 years ago.