Dewsbury pharmacy has eye on the future

Eye Pharmacy, at Ravensthorpe Retail Park, Huddersfield Road, will soon be the first in Kirklees to offer the Electronic Prescription System (EPS), where prescriptions can be sent to pharmacies electronically.

Director Mohammed Hussain is also the national clinical safety assurance manager for the EPS system, working with NHS IT body Connecting for Health to help GPs, pharmacies and opticians share information electronically.

In its first phase, already in use at the Eye Pharmacy, barcodes are printed on prescription slips which are then scanned at pharmacies. Eye Pharmacy also use barcodes on medicine packets, rather than having staff manually entering the data, when dispensing.

In the second phase, coming to the Eye Pharmacy next year, paper prescriptions can be completely done away with as prescriptions are sent directly to the pharmacies electronically.

It will mean patient prescriptions can be received by the pharmacy and prepared in advance, ready for collection by the patient.

Mr Hussain believes the EPS will make pharmacies more efficient, allowing more time to focus on patients.

He said: “I would have more time to speak to customers - that is one of the things we think IT can bring.

“It improves the efficiency and accuracy of dispensing prescriptions.”

The EPS also helps to reduce the amount of paper used by pharmacies - 800m prescriptions are printed each year in England alone.

Ten sites in England currently offer the new electronic service, with plans to roll out the new system across the country over the next few years.

Mr Hussain hopes the use of IT can help improve flexibility for patients - future plans include allowing patients to choose which pharmacy they would like to collect their prescription from.

Mr Hussain said: “We are trying to offer more flexibility for patients - they can choose the best quality of service. It’s an exciting time.”