(2) how many and what proportion of prescriptions were transferred via the electronic prescriptions service between (a) prescribers and dispensers and (b) dispenser and the NHS Business Services Division in each month since the inception of the electronic prescriptions service;
(3) whether the electronic prescriptions service can process prescriptions other than FP10 prescriptions.
In Release 1 of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS), an electronic message is transmitted to the EPS in parallel with a paper FP10 prescription form which is handed to the patient. This is necessary while a patient may take a prescription to a pharmacy in the transitional period that is not yet using the electronic prescription service. The current scope of Release 1 and Release 2 is prescriptions generated by general practitioner (GP) practices, either GPs, nurse or pharmacist prescribers, and dispensed in the community.
Electronic prescriptions are not planned to be transmitted to the NHS Business Service Authority until Release 2 is in operational use.
The following table provides the total number of electronic messages transmitted through the service between prescriber and dispensers since its inception in February 2005.
Month Total number of EPS R1 prescription messaged generated by GPs Total number of EPS R1 dispense notification messages sent by pharmacy February 2005 607 158 March 2005 3,442 1,110 April 2005 2,887 1,284 May 2005 3,576 1,624 June 2005 3,394 700 July 2005 6,135 1,176 August 2005 6,432 1,118 September 2005 14,400 1,504 October 2005 46,039 1,485 November 2005 69,823 1,844 December 2005 68,365 2,451 January 2006 87,074 1,594 February 2006 153,771 809 March 2006 260,898 3,476 April 2006 262,952 2,458 May 2006 439,427 2,227 June 2006 662,362 7,594 July 2006 816,584 4,248 August 2006 1,083,300 7,793 September 2006 1,362,209 8,955 October 2006 1,361,877 17,110 November 2006 1,539,616 22,396 December 2006 1,607,737 23,308 January 2007 1,988,882 31,708 February 2007 2,223,368 44,690 March 2007 2,617,552 59,528 April 2007 2,493,531 51,913 May 2007 3,351,179 89,128 June 2007 3,575,681 126,382 July 2007 4,454,930 158,129 August 2007 4,982,637 191,288 September 2007 4,935,859 226,683 October 2007 6,291,931 273,948 November 2007 5,855,981 276,397 December 2007 5,573,366 255,016 January 2008 6,897,355 370,909 February 2008 6,623,597 428,500 1 to 17 March 2008 4,890,086 243,144 Total 17 March 2008 75,003,880 2,951,526
Repeat electronic prescriptions will be transmitted through the electronic prescriptions service with the enablement of Release 2. At present, the system is unable to distinguish practice instigated repeat prescriptions compared to other prescriptions.
(2) how many and what percentage of community pharmacies were technically live on the electronic prescription service system in each month since its inception.
The information requested is shown in the following table.
Technical go live—general practitioner Percentage based on 8,480 sites Technical go live—pharmacy Percentage based on 10,363 sites February 2005 2 0.0 1 0.0 March 2005 2 0.0 1 0.0 April 2005 2 0.0 1 0.0 May 2005 17 0.2 2 0.0 June 2005 61 0.7 3 0.0 July 2005 118 1.4 3 0.0 August 2005 167 2.0 5 0.0 September 2005 179 2.1 7 0.1 October 2005 198 2.3 7 0.1 November 2005 468 5.5 10 0.1 December 2005 610 7.2 11 0.1 January 2006 650 7.7 12 0.1 February 2006 739 8.7 17 0.2 March 2006 998 11.8 219 2.1 April 2006 1,083 12.8 243 2.3 May 2006 1,226 14.5 1,404 13.5 June 2006 1,408 16.6 1,425 13.8 July 2006 1,536 18.1 1,493 14.4 August 2006 1,864 22.0 1,809 17.5 September 2006 1,987 23.4 2,195 21.2 October 2006 2,185 25.8 3,395 32.8 November 2006 2,289 27.0 3,544 34.2 December 2006 2,335 27.5 3,626 35.0 January 2007 2,375 28.0 3,950 38.1 February 2007 2,402 28.3 4,132 39.9 March 2007 2,815 33.2 4,340 41.9 April 2007 3,885 45.8 4,587 44.3 May 2007 5,023 59.2 4,933 47.6 June 2007 5,924 69.9 5,527 53.3 July 2007 5,980 70.5 6,036 58.2 August 2007 6,028 71.1 6,605 63.7 September 2007 6,177 72.8 6,971 67.3 October 2007 6,462 76.2 7,326 70.7 November 2007 6,552 77.3 7,652 73.8 December 2007 6,612 78.0 7,833 75.6 January 2008 6,649 78.4 8,052 77.7 February 2008 6,664 78.6 8,154 78.7 March 2008 6,667 78.6 8,159 78.7
Existing general practitioner (GP) system suppliers have developed systems that support release one of the electronic prescriptions service (EPS). The EPS has been deployed to 6,663 (79 per cent.) GP practices in England. Through the local service providers, a number of alternative GP systems have been provided to 699 GP practices.
There are no dispensing appliance contractors participating in release one of the electronic prescription system.