Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2020 to Question 61461 on Methadone: Prescriptions, what assessment his Department has made of the capacity of prescribers to safely electronically prescribe FP10 MDA opioid substitution therapy in England.
A recent review by NHS Digital looking at the availability of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) in light of the National Health Service’s COVID-19 response, considered that prescribers could not use EPS for FP10 MDA prescriptions. While this review resulted in work being initiated to accelerate technical developments that will support wider use of EPS, EPS for FP10 MDA is a highly complex area which requires significant technological development both centrally and by system vendors.