High-street chemist Boots will link to the first phase of the national electronic prescription system (EPS) this summer.

The scheme is part of the £6bn National Programme for NHS IT, which also includes electronic bookings and patient records, and a secure data spine.

The main EPS software is developed centrally, but pharmacies have to make their systems link to the national application.

Boots processes about 100 million prescriptions every year. The chain is nearing the end of the compliance process and is using Spinal Tap software from supplier Quicksilva to allow its upgraded dispensing system to interface with the spine.

The chain will start linking its 1,400 chemist shops to the first phase of EPS this summer.

‘The main purpose of the first release is to get everyone connected to the spine and to put the infrastructure in place for the next stage,’ said Dave Bottomley, Boots business systems manager. ‘It has been a major system development, involving a number of partners for six months.’

The first version of EPS is an interim system with both paper and electronic prescriptions. Scripts will have a barcode, scanned by the pharmacy to automatically retrieve details input onto the spine by the GP.

‘Pharmacists will no longer need to key in the prescription data so errors in that process will be eliminated,’ said Bottomley.

‘The customers will also be served more quickly.’

The full version of EPS is due towards the end of the year. It will cut out the paper script altogether by allowing patients to specify from which chemist they want to collect their medicine.

The scheme has considerable possibilities for pharmacies, says Bottomley. Electronic information can be easily moved around Boots’ network to allow customers to collect from any of the chain’s shops, for example.

‘Or we could provide an online facility where the customer can use our web site to specify where they want the medicine delivered,’ he said.

Boots will also look at the possibility of bagging and labelling customer orders centrally.

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