EPS saves £130 million over three years

NHS Digital has revealed that the electronic prescription service (EPS) has managed to save the NHS £130 million over the last three years.

As well as the financial savings, the system has also helped to save patients time and money when collecting their medications. Evidently, 72 per cent of patients said their medicines were ready and waiting for them when they arrived at their pharmacy, with the average prescription collection around 20 minutes quicker under the EPS system.

With more people falling ill over the winter period, and NHS England warning of a tough winter this year, EPS can help patients get their medication quickly and reduce the need for pharmacists to ring the GP about prescription queries.

According to NHS Digital, practices save an average of 43 minutes per day by not having to locate paper prescriptions within the practice and save a further 31 minutes every day by not having to re-print lost paper prescriptions. Additionally, practice staff save an average of 39 minutes every day by not having to wait for GPs to sign urgent paper prescriptions and can save an average of 27 minutes every day by cancelling prescriptions electronically versus paper.

Luvjit Kandula, Chief Officer of Leicestershire and Rutland Local Pharmaceutical Committee said: "The benefits relating to EPS include a reduced impact on pharmacies in terms of the collecting prescriptions and helping to manage the workload more efficiently. EPS allows more time to prepare prescriptions in advance particularly when electronic repeat dispensing is adopted. As further work is being planned to improve uptake of EPS and repeat dispensing, this will further improve the patient experience and free up more time for clinicians to focus on medicines optimisation and service delivery."