EPS has been fully rolled out to Detained Estate prescribers
NHS England has announced that the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) has been fully extended to Detained Estate healthcare services in England
The staggered rollout has allowed prescribers working in prisons to issue EPS ‘To Take Out’ (TTO) and critical prescriptions electronically to community pharmacies, thereby removing the need for paper FP10 forms.
Most people are released from prison with a supply of their current medications, so they may only need to collect their EPS prescription after release. They are also likely to collect their prescription from a pharmacy far from the prison, as many people are detained far from their homes.
This development and the piloting were previously announced.
Free-of-charge 0015 HMP code for these prescriptions
An HM prison-issued FP10 or FP10MDA prescription issued to a person released from prison is exempt from NHS prescription charges. HMP prescriptions should have the exemption category 0015 HMP selected*.
*On some dispensing systems, this category is worded in a misleading way, for example, ‘patient does not have to pay a prescription charge’.
The prescriber address section of the prescription must include the initials ‘HMP’/ ‘YOI’ (Young Offenders Institution) to confirm that the prescription is exempt from charges. Please note: the prescriber address is required by law.
If so, the patient does not need to complete a signed declaration on the back of the form or Token. Exemption category 0015 should only be used for processing HMP prescriptions for people released from prison.
Some pharmacy teams have requested that their system supplier identify HMP prescriptions and set these to the exemption category 0015 by default, and to flag for pharmacy teams that these are HMP free-of-charge electronic prescriptions.
Detained estate prescribers have been asked to let patients know that they should highlight the exemption to the pharmacy because these will not be automatically exempted by the Real Time Exemption Checking (RTEC) system.
Handling these prescriptions
These prescriptions are expected to be relatively rare in community pharmacies; however, any pharmacy may receive one of these prescriptions.
According to the NHSBSA, there are currently around 6,000 of these types of FP10s issued annually by prisons. Still, the availability of EPS may influence future use of that route to supply medicines to people being discharged from prison. Health and justice statistics indicate that tens of thousands of people are released from prison each year.
Here are the key points for pharmacy teams to consider when handling these prescriptions:
Individual prescriber codes
Prescriber codes are not used within the detained estate.
Patient communications
Prescribers have been asked to communicate to patients about their electronic prescriptions and to inform them that they are entitled to free prescriptions.
Non-nominated prescriptions
These prescriptions might be non-nominated EPS prescriptions that need to be retrieved from the NHS Spine. Due to the uncertainty of where individuals will live after release, prescribers typically choose to issue non-nominated prescriptions instead of using one-off or standard nominated prescriptions.
You’ll need to search using the patient’s name, date of birth, and NHS number, when available.
Tokens
Some individuals may have a token or prescription barcode/number for their prescription, which was either provided to them by the prescriber or can be accessed via the NHS App or their online NHS account. However, many patients may not have a token due to difficulties faced by prison prescribers in providing this and because patients may not have access to phones or computers to download their EPS token to present it to the pharmacy. In such cases, the prescription will need to be located by the pharmacy team using patient information, such as their name, date of birth and the address of the prison from which they were released.
Medication changes
Prison prescribers may not be able to amend prescriptions post-release. Patients can be directed to register with a new GP or contact NHS 111 for any medication changes or duplicate prescriptions.
Remain aware of patients who may have seen a community GP without collecting their prison discharge medication.
Pharmacy queries for the prescriber
If a pharmacy needs to contact the prison prescriber, for example, with a prescription query, they should look up the prison contact details and then phone the main prison switchboard and ask to be connected to the healthcare team. These teams generally operate during core hours from 08:00 to 17:00, Monday to Friday, with some availability outside these hours.
Scope
The current EPS implementation for detained estates prescribers covers medication at the point of release and critical items where the usual supply of medicines can’t be supplied locally, and discharge medications upon release. Controlled drug instalment prescribing still requires the use of paper FP10 MDA forms.
Patient Sensitivity
Be mindful that patients may be sensitive about disclosing their detention. The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act protects individuals from unlawful disclosure of past convictions, particularly spent ones, so maintaining discretion and professional confidentiality is essential.
Support and escalations
If there is a technical issue or a concern with an EPS prescription, use the usual EPS escalation route factsheet to ensure a proper resolution.
Looking ahead
Future developments planned by NHS England’s Health and Justice and EPS teams include extending EPS to secure children’s homes through upcoming pilots, exploring enhanced discharge medicines supply arrangements with up to 28-day supplies for all releases, and a separate discovery project examining electronic transmission of internal prison prescriptions that currently require paper-based processes.
NHS England’s Health and Justice thanks pharmacy teams for their support of people released from detention, as it is vital for their successful reintegration and continued healthcare. This electronic system ensures they receive timely access to essential medications during this critical transition period, improving healthcare outcomes for these vulnerable individuals.
Further information
