The NHS has updated its standards for electronic prescription service (EPS) nominations after “renewed scrutiny” of nomination practices by pharmacies and IT system suppliers.
Community Pharmacy England (CPE) said the change “reinforces the principle that patients must be able to set or change their nomination freely, without pressure or unwanted intervention”.
The update sets out four key standards for processing EPS nominations, including that patients “must choose their own nomination”, with no changes made “unless a patient has requested it”.
Read more: Petition launched to stop bulk EPS auto-renominations on NHS
Pharmacies are not allowed to “unduly” influence or persuade patients to “nominate a specific dispensing contractor”, or offer inducements to “encourage a patient to nominate them”.
Dispensers and prescribers are also advised that they “will need to confirm, set, change, cancel and reconfirm” patient nominations in a “timely manner”, and must use “clear processes” for nomination.
The use of data
NHS England (NHSE) clarified that “access to the nomination-related data” held within NHS Patient Demographic Services (PDS) “must only be where a legal basis exists”.
It said that for a dispenser, this “would be because a patient has presented and wishes to change their nomination, requires a consultation or where dispensing activity is required”.
“There would be no legal basis to access PDS nomination data outside of this, and a previous nomination is no guarantee of future intent,” it added.
Read more: ICB investigating pharmacy nominations ‘without consent’
CPE said NHSE “has written to system suppliers to confirm this position and to request the removal of any functionality that does not comply”.
It added that this “also reduces the risk of ‘patient ping‑pong’, where nominations switch back and forth between pharmacies without the patient’s knowledge”.
And it noted that some pharmacy teams “may be used to system features that checked for nomination changes or restored previous nominations”, but NHSE “has confirmed that these features should no longer operate, and suppliers are expected to disable them”.
Read more: The true cost of nomination theft
It follows an NHS Greater Manchester integrated care board (ICB) revealing in December that it was taking “action” against multiple pharmacies that had changed patients’ pharmacy nominations “without their consent”.
The ICB told C+D at the time that the action particularly regarded “the regulatory requirement in management of patient nominations to ensure patient safety”.
A petition was also launched later that month urging the government to ban tools which “auto-renominate EPS patients in bulk”.
