EPS Preparation
Introduction
The Electronic Prescription Service will allow prescriptions to be sent electronically from the GP surgery to the pharmacy and then on to NHS Prescription Services for payment.
The release two part of the service will support the use of advanced electronic signatures, e-repeat dispensing, patient nomination of their selected pharmacy, the cancellation of e-prescriptions, and the submission of prescriptions electronically to the NHS Prescription Service.
Most pharmacy PMR systems are now accredited for Release 2 and pharmacies that have Release 2 systems can start to collect patient nominations. The rate of deployment is expected to accelerate in the coming months. Every pharmacy contractor will need to consider their individual circumstances and carefully weigh up benefits, risks, opportunities and costs to determine the optimal time to upgrade.
Nottinghamshire LPC has been working closely with Nottinghamshire Health Informatics Service to ensure EPS Release 2 deployment happens in a managed and planned manner.
Contractors are advised to be ready for EPS Release 2 as there are gp practices going live in the area.
Best Practice NHS Requirements for Supporting EPS Release 2 go-lives – link
Useful documents for pharmacy preparation
(Please note – these are for Nottinghamshire contractors use only and if outside the area then you need to contact your area team or your own LPC website for details.
Pharmacy EPS R2 readiness checklist
Nomination Guidance – http://systems.hscic.gov.uk/eps/library/nomination.pdf. http://systems.hscic.gov.uk/eps/library/dontwaitnominate.pdf
Nottinghamshire Dispensing Token Distrib Plan v1 Final
Patient EPS summary leaflets – English, Gujerati, Latvian
EPS Patient Summary Leaflet Romanian
EPS Patient Summary Leaflet Russian
EPS Patient Summary Leaflet Urdu
EPS Patient Summary Leaflet Polish
EPS Patient Summary Leaflet Punjabi
An updated version of the EPS2 Prescription Tracker is now available.
http://systems.hscic.gov.uk/eps/library/rxtracker
https://portal2.national.ncrs.nhs.uk/prescriptionsadmin
This tracker allows users to enter a prescription ID and find out where in the process a prescription is at that time. It is NOW also possible to search by a patients NHS number and date range.
The tracker will confirm if the prescription has left the prescribing site, if it has reached the Spine or if it has been delivered to a dispensing site
Pharmacies should use this tracker FIRST before contacting GP Surgeries. It will save the pharmacy having to regularly ring the surgery to query missing EPS2 scripts which have already been uploaded to the spine.
Pharmacies should send a dispense notification immediately to the spine when a patient has collected their prescription
Nottinghamshire LPC and Healthwatch Nottinghamshire worked together on producing information to be displayed in pharmacies that was aimed at patients explaining the EPS service.
Here is the electronic version of the poster – EPSPosterCopy – aug14
Further information and support is available on the PSNC website
Key Contact Information:
HSCIC contact details are:
Michelle Greatrex
Michelle.Greatrex@hscic.gov.uk
07825125498
GP going live (more information)
If you have a GP surgery going live in your area and you have not been contacted then call the NHIS team.
Telephone 01623 410310
