Prescriptions: ICT

(asked on 27th November 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions she has had with the National Homecare Medicines Committee on its timetable for reporting on an electronic prescribing system.


Answered by
Andrew Stephenson Portrait
Andrew Stephenson
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 30th November 2023

The National Homecare Medicines Committee provided evidence about an electronic prescribing system (EPS) for the Homecare Medicine Service to the House of Lords Public Services Select Committee as part of its recent inquiry into the Service. The Committee published its report on 16 November 2023 which included recommendations on Information Technology interoperability and electronic prescribing. The Government welcomed this report and will respond in due course. This report is available at the following link:

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5803/ldselect/pubserv/269/269.pdf

NHS England and the National Homecare Medicines Committee Digital Sub-Group have been working to develop an output-based specification to support electronic prescribing and the transmission of prescriptions using the national EPS. Adoption of this is dependent on IT suppliers, as well as the development capability and priorities of the National Health Service EPS Product Team.

It is too early to give an indicative timetable for this work. NHS England has, however, set up a working group to explore the feasibility of whether the current EPS can be utilised across Homecare Medicines Services. This group is likely to report at the end of April 2024.

Reticulating Splines