Microtest claims EPS Release 2 ‘first’

The first electronic prescription for the Southern Cluster of strategic health authorities has been produced using Release 2 of the national Electronic Prescription Service by a Dorset GP using Microtest’s Evolution system.

Dr Tom McKinstry of the Village Medical Practice, West Moors, said, “This new way of working will deliver benefits to patients and practices alike and will enable more effective use of our time helping patients rather than manually signing prescriptions.”

The new Microtest Evolution v11 Clinical System received first of type approval from NHS Connecting for Health in the summer, allowing EPS R2 to be used in up to four GP surgeries to send a patient's prescription electronically to a pharmacy of the patient's choice.

The Microtest Evolution v11 System is currently being tested in these four practices prior to full approval and the software being rolled out to all Microtest practices across England.

The Electronic Prescription Service will allow all practices in England to produce prescriptions electronically which are digitally signed and sent to the pharmacy chosen, or nominated, by the patient.

The new service is expected to produce significant savings in both time and money, as there is no requirement for paper prescriptions to be signed by GPs and there is no need for a patient to visit the surgery to collect a prescription.

Chris Netherton, managing director of the Cornwall-based GP system supplier, said: “The delivery and commissioning of EPS R2 in our practices has gone very smoothly and brings one of our many significant DoH development projects to fruition.

"Evolution 11 delivers many new and exciting benefits to practices, of which EPS R2 is just one. We hope to gain full rollout approval by November.”

The Southern cluster covers South West, South Central and South East strategic health authorities.