Home Myth Busters
Myth: Repeat Prescriptions will take 48 hours to process through the Spine
Fact: All messages sent via the EPS service are classified as ‘immediate’ or ‘routine’. These classifications are used to prioritise certain prescription flows and don’t relate to the clinical importance of the prescription. On issuing the prescription, the prescriber has the flexibility to classify the prescription.
Prescription messages will normally be classed as immediate so will be available for download from the Spine shortly after the prescriber has sent the prescription.
Where patients have nominated a pharmacy, the pharmacy system will be able to periodically ‘pull down’ the message to the local pharmacy system. To minimise network traffic, this will normally be done once daily, over night or first thing in the morning as part of the system start-up process. However, pharmacy staff will also be able to initiate a system check for any nominated prescriptions waiting to be pulled down, on an ad hoc basis where necessary. For example, a pharmacy may wish to check for any nominated prescriptions before placing an order with a supplier to ensure that any necessary stock is obtained in time for the patient visiting the pharmacy.
Where patients are currently served by repeat prescription collection services, pharmacies will advise the patient on the timescales from receipt of request to availability of the prescription for the patient. Pharmacies will need to consider with local prescribers whether any changes will be required to these timescales for Release 2. For example, taking into consideration timescale for the prescriber to review the request and send the prescription.
EPS Myth Buster Myth: The EPS Spine is frequently off-line
Fact: CFH reported that between 1st October 2007 and november 2008, the Spine was only off-line for a total of 114 minutes, the majority of this time being during at night.
There are a number of technical components that make up the Electronic Prescription Service, for example the central EPS Spine, the broadband connection, the dispensary computer system and barcode-scanners. Technical failure can affect any of these components. When problems arise, it is important that these are reported to system suppliers and properly investigated.
There is a traffic light system on the NHS intranet that provides live information on when the Spine is on or off-line. The Department of Health is considering whether this information can be made available to pharmacies.
DOWNLOADS: Some documents are available in PDF format, you will require Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or later for viewing which can be downloaded from the Adobe Website
DOWNLOADS: Some documents are available in ‘Microsoft Word’ format. If you do not have Microsoft Word, you can read these forms by downloading the free 'Word Viewer'. This program can be downloaded at the Microsoft website