NHS IT legacy projects

EPS Release 1

Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) Release 1 was the first phase of EPS. It allowed prescription information to be sent electronically whilst the paper prescription remained the legal prescription.

Initial deployment began from March 2005. EPS Release 2 has since become the standard approach across England, and EPS Release 1 is now considered a legacy part of the service.

What Release 1 did

EPS Release 1 allowed:

• Electronic transmission of prescription information from GP practices to pharmacies;
• Automatic transfer of patient demographic information into pharmacy systems; and
• Early testing of NHS digital prescribing infrastructure before wider deployment of EPS Release 2.

Historical system requirements

To use EPS Release 1, pharmacy owners needed:

• An EPS-compliant pharmacy IT system approved for EPS use;
• Appropriate NHS network connectivity;
• Staff with authorised NHS access credentials; and
• Smartcard access arrangements in line with NHS requirements at the time.

Lessons learned from Release 1

Many pharmacy teams found that Release 1 helped:

• Reduce manual entry of patient demographic information;
• Improve record accuracy;
• Identify connectivity or configuration issues; and
• Prepare for the transition to EPS Release 2.

In some pharmacies, Release 1 was also used to support record-cleansing exercises by helping identify duplicate patient records.

Why this information is now historical

EPS Release 2 became the national focus many years ago and provides significantly more functionality than Release 1. Today, pharmacy teams should follow current EPS guidance and their IT system supplier’s instructions.

Related resources

• EPS Release 2;
• Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) guidance; and
• Current NHS digital prescribing resources.

Shielded Patient List (SPL)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, NHS England added a Shielded Patient Flag to the Summary Care Record (SCR) of people identified as being at particularly high risk from coronavirus infection.

The flag helped healthcare professionals, including community pharmacy teams, identify patients who may have required additional support and protection.

People on the Shielded Patient List were generally those considered clinically extremely vulnerable, including some people who were immunosuppressed.

The Shielded Patient Flag could be viewed within authorised Summary Care Record applications and supported clinical decision-making during the pandemic response.

Other legacy projects

The following NHS digital services have been replaced or renamed:

• Citizen Identity was replaced by NHS login;
• The Information Governance (IG) Toolkit was replaced by the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT);
• Local Health and Care Records are now generally referred to as Shared Care Records;
• The NHS Apps Library was closed and replaced by newer NHS app assessment and digital service arrangements;
• N3 was replaced by the Health and Social Care Network (HSCN);
• NHS Choices was updated and rebranded as the NHS website; and
• NHS Identity was replaced by Care Identity Service 2 (CIS2).

Current digital developments

Since these legacy projects were retired, NHS digital transformation has continued. Current programmes of relevance to community pharmacy include:

• Expansion of the NHS App;
• Development of the Single Patient Record programme;
• Greater use of NHS Booking and Referral Standard (BaRS) integrations;
• Increased use of Shared Care Records;
• Improvements to digital prescribing and EPS;
• Single sign-on and identity management developments; and
• Greater interoperability between pharmacy, general practice and wider NHS systems.

These developments align with wider NHS ambitions to move from analogue to digital services and to improve information sharing across healthcare settings.