National Patient Prescription Tracking Service (NPPTS)

The National Patient Prescription Tracking Service (NPPTS) enables patients to access and track their prescriptions online through the NHS App or their NHS account (by logging in on the NHS website).

NPPTS is a feature of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) that utilises a combination of Spine and Pharmacy IT supplier systems’ information to provide item and prescription-level status updates to the NHS App.

This feature enables patients to access their prescription information online and monitor the status and availability of their prescribed EPS items. It builds on the increased amount of EPS information made available in the NHS App last year.

What is it?

The service aims to:

• give visibility of the prescription journey to patients via the NHS App
• reduce the burden on busy healthcare teams by reducing the number of queries from patients to pharmacy and GP practice teams

Pharmacy IT suppliers enable this functionality within their systems, and for most suppliers, the required data is already captured within their platforms. NHS England is continuing to work with pharmacy IT suppliers to make prescription readiness information available to patients.

In the future, the service is expected to support push notifications via the NHS App, alerting patients when their prescriptions are ready for collection.

Rollout of the functionality

This feature is being gradually rolled out nationwide as pharmacy IT suppliers onboard and activate it within their IT systems and across their customers’ pharmacies.

IT supplier progress

All pharmacy IT suppliers were invited to participate in the project, with some able to make changes to their systems sooner than others. As of June 2025, the suppliers and systems rolling out were: Apotec, Boots Colombus, Cegedim’s Pharmacy Manager and Invatech’s Titan. Other suppliers are anticipated to consider the integration work. Progress updates and a list of the pharmacy IT suppliers working on implementing the functionality are available on NHS England’s NPPTS webpage about this project.

Actions for pharmacy teams

If your supplier is rolling out NPPTS, consider:

• If any of your patient communications will reference NPPTS.
• How you will refer to the feature if and where needed, in the event of prescription readiness queries.
• How will you communicate about the feature verbally or in writing?
• Whether standard operating procedures and systems require updating (does your system change the statuses in the NHS App so that patients can see the right status at the right time).
• The benefits of adopting a scan-to-shelf process, if you are not already using this process.

If your supplier is not yet rolling out NPPTS, consider:

• checking NHS England’s webpage about the project for supplier updates
• asking your IT supplier about their plans for integrating this feature.

FAQS

Q. When will my PMR system send a message to the NHS App that the message is ready to be collected? Can I work with my supplier so that the timing is appropriate?

NHS England has requested that PMR suppliers work with their pharmacy customers to ensure that information flows at the most relevant moment.

The timing is determined by the PMR system supplier’s determination for you.

Pharmacies that utilise a PMR system with this feature can collaborate with their PMR supplier to ensure that the PMR properly flags to the NPPTS at the right time. This will help prevent the PMR from encouraging patients to visit the pharmacy ‘too early,’ before their prescription is ready for collection.

Some system suppliers are updating their PMR timestamps to enhance future interoperability with NPPTS, such as adopting the use of scan-to-shelf technology for a greater number of their pharmacy customers.

Q: Were all PMR suppliers given the chance to participate in this project?

Yes, NHS England engaged with all EPS Pharmacy IT suppliers, and each supplier has been invited to develop integration.

Q: Does the NHS App currently offer push notifications?

No. In the future, the service is expected to support push notifications within the NHS App, alerting users when their prescriptions are ready for collection.

Q: Why are some sites currently rolled out within a Pharmacy IT supplier estate but not all?

Pharmacy IT suppliers are rolling out the feature to sites able to offer prescription status updates as close to real-time as possible to ensure an optimised NHS App user experience. Through working with their Pharmacy IT suppliers, some sites may find a need to adapt business processes or implement supportive technology before enabling the functionality.

Q: Will there be any support materials or communications provided to support the rollout?

Pharmacy IT suppliers were provided with template communication materials and encouraged by NHS England to make these available for use by their pharmacy customers, as their IT systems were updated to include the feature.

Q: I already promote a pharmacy app which my patients use. I don’t want to encourage the use of the NHS App. Is there an expectation that I should do this?

NHS England does not expect pharmacies to actively encourage users of an existing pharmacy app to switch to the NHS App.

Further information

For further information visit NHS England’s webpage for information about the service.

Return to the Pharmacy IT hub; EPS home; or IT a-z index

For more information on this topic please email it@cpe.org.uk