EPS across settings

England

England uses the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) for NHS prescriptions.

Wales

Electronic prescribing is continuing to expand across Wales.

Key points:

• All seven pharmacy IT system suppliers contracted in Wales support EPS;
• Most pharmacies in Wales can now receive electronic prescriptions; and
• Many GP practices in Wales can send electronic prescriptions.

Patients registered with an EPS-enabled GP practice in Wales can nominate a pharmacy to receive their prescriptions. This includes pharmacies in England. Similarly, patients registered with an English GP practice can nominate an EPS-enabled pharmacy in Wales.

If you receive a Welsh prescription, check that the patient’s nomination remains correct.

For example, if a patient has moved home there may be an outdated nomination recorded. Where appropriate, pharmacy teams should update the nomination and return any incorrectly directed prescriptions to the NHS Spine.

Pharmacy teams should also be aware that prescription charge arrangements differ in Wales and England. Patients collecting Welsh prescriptions from an English pharmacy may need to pay a prescription charge unless they qualify for exemption.

The move from paper to digital prescribing makes ordering, prescribing and collecting medicines more convenient. This is particularly useful for people living near the England-Wales border.

As with all EPS activity, pharmacy teams should follow established EPS nomination principles.

Scotland

Scotland uses national electronic prescribing and dispensing systems. These differ from England’s Electronic Prescription Service (EPS).

Scottish systems support digital prescribing and dispensing but operate using different processes and workflows from those used in England.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland uses different prescribing and dispensing arrangements from England.

Digital prescribing services continue to be developed to support greater electronic exchange of prescription information between prescribers and community pharmacies.

EPS for detained estate services

NHS England has extended Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) to detained estate healthcare services across England.

The phased rollout allows prison prescribers to issue electronic prescriptions for:

• Take-out (TTO) medicines when an individual leaves prison; and
• Critical prescriptions where urgent access to medicines is needed.

This reduces reliance on paper FP10 forms and can help patients access medicines more quickly after release.

Most people leave prison with an initial supply of their medicines. Any EPS prescription issued on release may be collected from a community pharmacy anywhere in England, often some distance from the prison itself.

Free prescription exemption category 0015 HMP

Prescriptions issued on prison release using FP10 or FP10MDA arrangements are exempt from NHS prescription charges.

For these prescriptions:

• Exemption category 0015 HMP should be selected;
• Some dispensing systems may describe this category differently, for example ‘patient does not have to pay a prescription charge‘; and
• The prescriber address must include HMP or YOI (Young Offender Institution).

Where these requirements are met, the patient does not need to complete a declaration on the reverse of a paper form or token.

Exemption category 0015 should only be used for eligible prison-release prescriptions.

Some pharmacy teams have asked IT system suppliers to:

• Automatically identify eligible HMP prescriptions;
• Apply exemption category 0015 by default; and
• Clearly flag these prescriptions to pharmacy teams.

Prison prescribers have also been asked to explain to patients that they qualify for free prescriptions because Real Time Exemption Checking (RTEC) may not automatically identify these exemptions.

What pharmacy teams need to know

These prescriptions are expected to be uncommon, but any community pharmacy could receive one.

Prescription volumes

These prescriptions are expected to be relatively rare. According to NHSBSA, there are about 6,000 HJIS prescriptions annually, and Health and Justice statistics indicate that around 40,000 people are released from prison each year. However, any pharmacy might receive these prescriptions. Here are the key points for pharmacy teams to consider when handling these prescriptions.

Prescriber codes

Individual prescriber codes are not used for detained estate prescriptions.

Patient communication

Prescribers have been asked to explain:

• That an electronic prescription has been issued; and
• That the patient is entitled to free prescription charges where applicable.

Non-nominated prescriptions

Many prison-release prescriptions are issued as non-nominated EPS prescriptions.

Because an individual may not yet know where they will be living after release, prescribers will often avoid using a nominated pharmacy.

Pharmacy teams may need to retrieve the prescription from the NHS Spine using:

• Patient name;
• Date of birth; and
• NHS number, where available.

Tokens

Some patients may have:

• An EPS token;
• A prescription barcode; or
• A prescription reference number.

Others may not have any documentation because they may not have had access to printing facilities, phones or online services before release.

In these cases, pharmacy teams may need to identify the prescription using available patient details, such as their name, date of birth and the prison from which they were released.

Medication changes

Prison prescribers may not be able to amend prescriptions after an individual has been released.

Where changes are needed, patients should be directed to:

• Register with a GP practice; or
• Contact NHS 111 for advice.

Pharmacy teams should remain alert to situations where a patient has subsequently received a prescription from a GP but has not yet collected their prison-release medicines.

Queries for prison prescribers

If you need to contact a prison healthcare team about a prescription query:

• Find the prison’s contact details;
• Call the main switchboard; and
• Ask to be connected to the healthcare team.

Healthcare services generally operate during core weekday hours, although local arrangements may vary.

Scope

The current EPS service covers:

• Medicines supplied when a person is released from prison;
• Critical medicines where local supply is not possible; and
• Discharge medicines.

Controlled drug instalment prescriptions continue to require paper FP10MDA forms.

Patient confidentiality

Patients may be sensitive about discussing previous detention.

Pharmacy teams should:

• Maintain discretion;
• Respect confidentiality at all times; and
• Avoid unnecessary discussion of detention history.

Professional handling of these prescriptions helps support patient dignity, trust and continuity of care.

Support and escalations

If you experience a technical issue or have concerns about an EPS prescription, follow our usual EPS escalation route factsheet to help ensure the issue is escalated and resolved appropriately.

Looking ahead

NHS England’s Health and Justice team continues to expand the use of EPS across additional healthcare settings.

Planned developments include:

• Piloting EPS use within secure children’s homes;
• Exploring enhanced arrangements for discharge medicines, including supplies of up to 28 days following release; and
• Assessing options for the electronic transmission of internal prison prescriptions, which currently rely on paper-based processes.

NHS England has thanked pharmacy teams for supporting people released from detention. Timely access to medicines following release can play an important role in supporting continuity of care and reducing health inequalities during a critical period of transition.

Benefits

The rollout of EPS within the detained estate helps improve access to urgent and necessary medicines by:

• Allowing prescriptions for discharge medicines to be issued in advance as part of release planning, removing the need to manage paper prescriptions safely;
• Supporting more flexible and remote prescribing processes, reducing reliance on on-site prescribers issuing paper FP10 forms;
• Reducing the need for medicines to be dispensed before release when supplies may be left behind or cannot be collected in time;
• Helping to avoid patients having to return to a prison after release to collect medicines that often remain uncollected; and
• Allowing prescriptions to be cancelled electronically if an individual returns to custody, avoiding issues associated with paper FP10 forms.

Further information

• NHS England Health and Justice Information Service (HJIS) update (September 2025)
• NHS England notice about the full rollout of EPS to detained estate services (February 2025)
• NHS England notice about the rollout of EPS to detained estate services (August 2024)

EPS for sexual health clinics

EPS is available for use within sexual health clinics.

Pharmacy teams should be aware of arrangements for dispensing Free Supply (FS) prescriptions issued by eligible clinics.

See our patient charges and Free Supply (FS) guidance for further information.

EPS and secondary care

EPS continues to be introduced across NHS trusts and secondary care settings.

This expansion supports the wider NHS ambition to reduce paper prescribing and improve information sharing between care settings.

Pharmacy teams should expect the use of EPS by hospital and specialist services to continue to increase over time.

EPS and urgent care

EPS is available within many urgent care settings, including:

• NHS 111;
• GP out-of-hours services;
• Clinical Assessment Services (CAS);
• Walk-in centres;
• Minor injury units; and
• Urgent treatment centres.

EPS is available through a range of prescribing systems, including:

• Advanced Adastra;
• IC24;
• EMIS Web; and
• TPP systems.

Urgent care prescribers can issue electronic prescriptions in much the same way as GP practices.

How does this work?

Prescribers identify a pharmacy that is open and accessible for the patient.

However, EPS alone cannot confirm whether a pharmacy:

• Is aware of the urgency of the prescription;
• Has the item in stock; or
• Can dispense the prescription immediately.

Urgent care providers may therefore contact pharmacies directly where urgent supply is needed.

One-off nomination

Urgent care services can use a one-off nomination to send a prescription to a patient’s chosen pharmacy.

This does not affect the patient’s usual nominated pharmacy.

Downloading prescriptions

Prescriptions are downloaded into the pharmacy’s IT system using normal EPS processes.

Pharmacies that regularly receive urgent prescriptions may wish to review how frequently they download prescriptions from the NHS Spine.

The prescription contains the prescriber’s contact details if clarification is needed.

Downloading a prescription manually

Pharmacy teams can use the Prescription ID to locate and download a prescription manually if they want to delay a full prescription download.

If the patient attends a different pharmacy

Patients may occasionally attend a different pharmacy from the one selected during the consultation.

In these situations, pharmacy teams can:

• Obtain the patient’s NHS number through the Personal Demographics Service (PDS);
• Use the Prescription ID to retrieve the prescription; or
• Contact the originally selected pharmacy.

Patients may receive the Prescription ID verbally or via text message.

What happens if EPS cannot be used?

Where a prescribing or national system issue occurs, urgent care providers may send a scanned FP10 prescription to the patient’s chosen pharmacy through nhs.net, usually alongside a telephone call.

This supports an emergency supply process while the original prescription is sent separately.

EPS and dentistry

EPS has not yet been rolled out across dentistry.

Dental prescribing volumes remain relatively low compared with general practice, and national implementation work has not yet been completed.

If EPS is expanded into dentistry in future, technical, operational and regulatory changes will be required.

National COVID-19 Clinical Assessment Service electronic prescriptions

From 1st September 2020, the COVID-19 Clinical Assessment Service (CCAS) enabled GPs working within the service to prescribe using EPS.

This helped improve the patient journey by allowing a complete episode of care to be delivered remotely, including prescribing where clinically appropriate.

EPS prescriptions issued through the service could be dispensed anywhere in England, and pharmacy teams could contact prescribers using the details included within the prescription message where necessary.

NHS England continues to explore opportunities to extend EPS to additional care settings, supporting wider use across community, urgent care, out-of-hours and other healthcare services.

Possible additions for 2026

This section could be updated to reflect:

• The NHS move towards a Single Patient Record;
• Greater integration between pharmacy systems and the NHS App;
• Expansion of digital referrals and bookings through national standards;
• Developments in shared care records and interoperability; and

Wider use of digital prescribing across healthcare settings.

Escalations or concerns

If you identify a technical issue or have concerns about an EPS prescription from any care setting, use the EPS escalation route guidance to ensure the issue is investigated and resolved appropriately.