A digital dawn

The Digital Medicines Transformation Portfolio brings together the programmes and projects that will deliver the benefits of a fully digital prescribing approach in all care settings in Wales.

Making the prescribing, dispensing and administration of medicines everywhere in Wales, easier, safer, more efficient and effective, through digital.

Responding to an independent review¹, the minister for Health and Social Care set out her ambition for a comprehensive digital medicines plan for Wales² in September 2021 and asked Digital Health and Care Wales to establish the Digital Medicines Transformation Portfolio.

What’s included

The portfolio coordinates four different areas of work, all of which have connections with each other:

• Primary Care Electronic Prescription Service: Electronic signing and transfer of prescriptions from GPs and non-medical prescribers to the community pharmacy or appliance dispenser of a person’s choice.

• Secondary Care Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration: Implementing e-prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA) across all of Wales’s hospitals. Sending outpatient prescriptions to the person’s pharmacy of choice.

• Patient Access: Using the NHS Wales App to share and collect medicines information, order repeat prescriptions and nominate a person’s pharmacy of choice.

• Shared Medicines Record: Building a single shared record of medicines for every patient in Wales so that all the information is in one place.

Exciting times ahead

Hospitals in Wales have already seen the implementation of a single pharmacy system, which has now been live across all sites for over a year. This has been as significant step forward in centralising and standardising processes.

This is an exciting time to be involved with digital pharmacy in Wales and I look forward to providing an update as the work progresses.

References

1. The Future of Electronic Prescribing in Wales

2. Written Statement: Statement on the ePrescribing Programme