The UK government has invested £42m in an “ePharmacy programme” that will see the launch of electronic prescriptions in Northern Ireland, the country’s Department of Health (DH) has announced.
The DH said on May 26 that the introduction of a new ePharmacy Primary Care Digital Reform Programme will make paper prescriptions “a thing of the past”.
“Prescriptions will be digitally transferred from the prescriber, GPs or out-of-hours to community pharmacies, streamlining the process for patients” it added.
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The funding will also see the creation of a new digital platform that will “manage the delivery of clinical services to the public through community pharmacies”, the DH said.
This will improve “patient safety, expanding access to care for patients and bringing treatment closer to people’s homes,” it added.
The project is one of six announced by Northern Ireland finance minister John O’Dowd yesterday as part of a £102.6m investment to “drive forward the transformation of public services”.
“Transforming patient experience”
Northern Ireland health minister Mike Nesbitt said that “with over 45 million items prescribed and dispensed annually” across the country’s primary care system, “transitioning from paper prescriptions to a digital system will genuinely transform patient experience”.
He added that the programme and digital platform “will help to make health and social care as safe as possible, accelerate primary care reform and help support our move towards a neighbourhood model of care for primary, community and social care”.
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It comes after Marie Curie told C+D that 127 community pharmacies in Northern Ireland have signed up to its Daffodil Standards for palliative care so far.
The end-of-life charity said the standards, developed in partnership with the Royal College of Pharmacy, “align closely” with the neighbourhood model of care to “shift care closer to home”.
