Methadone: Prescriptions

(asked on 21st July 2020) - View Source

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 21 July 2020 to Question 71722 on Methadone: Prescriptions, what plans he has to authorise requests from NHS and voluntary sector providers to electronically prescribe FP10 MDA opioid substitution therapy.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 1st September 2020

There has already been unprecedented growth in the use and availability of electronic prescribing across the system. However, the Government wants to go further and enable as many prescriptions as possible can be sent electronically. The aim to increase the use of electronic prescribing builds on work already ongoing throughout the National Health Service, where more than 6,000 general practitioners are now able to use the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS).

However, significant technological development is required, both centrally and by system vendors, for electronic FP10 MDA prescriptions to be processed legally and safely.

In 2018 NHS Digital undertook a prioritisation exercise to identify future enhancements and improvements to the EPS through to March 2021. This included a review of the use of FP10 MDA prescriptions. This exercise identified several other higher priority EPS related developments at that time.

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