Using EPS identifiers to look-up prescriptions
Published on: 7th March 2016 | Updated on: 11th August 2026
Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) messages move securely between prescribing and pharmacy IT systems through the NHS Spine. Each prescription is linked to a patient’s NHS number and prescribed medicines. A series of unique identifiers helps connect prescribing, dispensing and claiming activity, and supports NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) payment processing.
There may be times when you need to look up an older EPS prescription in your IT system. For example, you may need to:
- check how a prescription was processed or claimed;
- review payment information;
- investigate a query raised by NHSBSA; or
- trace activity relating to a particular EPS prescription.
Depending on your IT system supplier, you may be able to search for a prescription using:
- the patient’s details or NHS number;
- the token ID (or barcode ID shown on an EPS token) using identifier (2) below; or
- the claim line item identifier used within the NHSBSA Transparency Portal using identifier (7) below.
EPS prescription identifiers
The following identifiers may be associated with an EPS prescription:
| Identifier category | Identifier | Information |
|
GP system-generated
|
(1) Prescription Form UUID* (long) | This universally unique identifier (UUID) is generated by the prescriber system. |
| (2) Short Prescription Form ID – token ID |
|
|
| (3) Prescription Line Item UUID* | Each line also has its own UUID. | |
|
Pharmacy system-generated: Dispensing
Note: If a dispense line or form |
(4) Dispense Notification Supplied Line Item UUID* | This line ID is generated for each dispensing episode entered onto the EPS IT system (e.g. owings). The NHSBSA only need to receive last one. |
| (5) Dispensed Notification Form UUID* | Generated when pharmacy team sends the overall dispense message for form. | |
|
Pharmacy system-generated: Claiming
|
(6) Dispense/Claim Form UUID* | Generated when pharmacy team sends the overall prescription claim notification. Where claim amend feature used this will be regenerated. |
| (7) Dispense/Claim Supplied Line Item UUID* | This ID is used within the Prescription item report (PIR) **. Speak to your system supplier about whether they will soon allow search by the Transparency Portal EPS ID if they do not already. | |
|
Generated for use by NHSBSA
|
(8) Dispense Reimbursement Claim ID |
Spine generates this for sending to BSA, after pharmacy send final claim notification. Suppliers could not allow any lookup by this ID even if they wished to. This ID is only used by the NHSBSA. |
*Indicates a ID composed of 32 characters plus four hyphens
**Information from the NHSBSA. See your Prescription Item report.
Prescription Item Report The identifier shown in item(7) is available within the NHSBSA Transparency Portal. It can be found in the Prescription Item Report.
For more information on this topic please email comms.team@cpe.org.uk
