Written question WQ83034

At the start of 2021, Welsh Government commissioned a review into ePrescribing, defined for the review as the digitalisation of the whole process of the need for prescriptions by patients, the prescribing of medication by clinicians, the assurance and dispensing of prescriptions by pharmacists and the auditing and pricing by monitoring authorities. The expert panel group that were consulted as part of the review included members from across the health sectors.

The review was completed in April 2021, and officials are currently assessing the outputs of the review to identify the way forwards, with an announcement expected in the next few weeks. It is intended that an ePrescribing Programme, to cover all care sectors as well as improving the abilities for public and patients to manage their medications (for example re-ordering, viewing videos on how particular medication should be administered) will commence this financial year. Funding has been planned within the Digital Priorities Investment Fund over this financial year and the next financial year to deliver this programme of work. This programme of work would bring together four key areas of work: Primary Care Prescribing, Welsh Hospital ePrescribing and Medicines Administration, Digital Services for Public and Patients functionality (to allow patients to reorder medication via the new NHS Wales app), and the National Medicines Repository Project.

The intent is to progress on all four areas of work in parallel, to deliver benefits to patients and clinicians as quickly as possible. In terms of patient benefits, prescriptions from GPs would no longer involve paper copies, and links with the NHS Wales App being delivered through the Digital Services for Public & Patients Programme would allow electronic reordering (in addition to existing methods). The National Medicines Repository element would mean that when a patient is admitted to a Welsh hospital (including those that they would not normally attend), the staff have access to a record of all the medication the patient is prescribed across all care settings, enabling them to make decisions on a fuller picture of information.

Pilots of secondary care ePrescribing at two Swansea Bay University Health Board hospitals has seen 8 hours a week of nursing, pharmacist and doctor time saved from rewriting lost/missing or full prescription charts, and a 20% reduction in nurse drug round time (due to the process being made more efficient), which is all additional time that can be spent with patients addressing their care needs.