More than a quarter of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) did not have any GP practices set up to use the electronic prescription service (EPS) by the end of March, NHS figures have revealed.

Fifty four of England's 211 CCGs – 26 per cent – still had no EPS-enabled practices three months ago, according to data published on NHS England's medicines optimisation dashboard last week (June 12).

Only 6 per cent of all items dispensed across England between January and March were supplied through EPS, according to the figures.

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	Some of the CCGs that had not begun using EPS told C+D they had plans to implement the service, but stressed that ensuring both GPs and pharmacies were trained to use electronic prescriptions was a "substantial" piece of work.

Independent Pharmacy Federation chair Fin McCaul told C+D the slow uptake by GPs was "frustrating and disappointing" for community pharmacies who were "ready and waiting" to use EPS.

"There is as much hassle for community pharmacy to implement EPS as for GP surgeries, but I do not see as much support for pharmacies," he said.

Contractor Raj Patel of Alisha Pharmacy in Ealing, one of the areas without any EPS-enabled GPs, said he and his staff had to wait "a very long time" for practices to "get their act together".

"It seems ridiculous that we've gone through all this and nothing has been implemented," he told C+D.

Both Ealing and West London CCGs told C+D they would introduce EPS as part of a "major deployment" of new IT systems across local GP surgeries.

"The introduction of EPS is an important part of the CCGs' local commitment to improving access to patient care, as well as to the national strategy around a paperless NHS," a spokesperson for the two groups told C+D.

West Hampshire CCG, which NHS England had listed as having no EPS-enabled practices, told C+D on Tuesday (June 17) that its first GP practice had gone live that day.

The group had ensured that "all affected community pharmacies" were ready to accept electronic prescriptions before a GP practice implemented the service, said CCG associate director of medicines management Neil Hardy.

Mr Hardy said he expected all GP practices in the area to be using the system "within the next few months".

Figures released earlier this month by the Health & Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), which implements EPS on behalf of the Department of Health (DH), show that 26 per cent of GP surgeries in England have gone live with EPS, compared to 94 per cent of pharmacies. More than 64.7 million items have been dispensed and claimed via EPS.

Last week, C+D learned that the DH had set aside additional funds to hasten the roll-out of EPS in GP practices. At the time HSCIC said it had seen "a significant increase in take-up" of EPS release 2 in practices since November last year and this was "continuing into 2014".

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Source: NHS England medicines optimisation prototype dashboard. Figures calculated from April 2013-March 2014. The full spreadsheet can be found at tinyurl.com/nwan23l

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