EPS rolls out for Detained Estate prescribers

NHS England has announced that from December 2024, the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) will be extended to Detained Estate healthcare services in England.

This extension will allow prescribers working in prisons to issue EPS ‘To Take Out’ (TTO) and urgent prescriptions electronically to community pharmacies, removing the need for the use of paper FP10 forms.

Most people will be 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 a long distance from their homes.

This development was previously announced, but the start of rollout in early adopter prisons was delayed due to the need for legislative changes to be made.

Handling these prescriptions

These prescriptions are expected to be relatively rarely seen in pharmacies; however, any pharmacy might receive one of these prescriptions.

According to the NHSBSA, there are currently around 6,000 of these types of FP10s issued annually by prisons, but 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:

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 may choose to issue non-nominated prescriptions instead of using one-off or standard nominated prescriptions.

Tokens

Some individuals might have a token or prescription barcode/number for their prescription, either provided to them by the prescriber or accessible via the NHS App or their online NHS website 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.

Free-of-charge status

An HM prison-issued FP10 or FP10MDA prescription issued to a person released from prison is exempt from NHS prescription charges.

The prescriber address section of the prescription must include the initials ‘HMP’ to confirm that the prescription is exempt from charges.

If so, the patient does not need to complete a signed declaration on the back of the form or Token.

In EPS, exemption category 0015 for “Was prescribed free-of-charge STI sexual health medication” must be populated to ensure that the NHSBSA processes HMP prescriptions issued to prisoners on the release as exempt from charges.

Some PMR systems may label exemption category 0015 differently, for example, “Patient does not have to pay a prescription charge”.

It is important to note that exemption category 0015 should only be used for processing HMP prescriptions for people released from prison.

Pharmacy queries to the prescriber

If a pharmacy needs to contact the prison prescriber, 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.

Rollout plans

The rollout of EPS in the detained estate will be phased. Insights from early users will help shape the later stages of the rollout plan.

The initial rollout at HMPs Leeds and Foston Hall is expected to complete in late January 2025 with full rollout taking place between February 2025 and April 2025 (see the table below and note that dates could be subject to change).

The plans and dates may be subject to change.

The current rollout schedule is slightly later than initially anticipated due to a requirement to amend legislation to allow free-of-charge prescriptions to be issued via EPS for patients on release.

Support and escalations

Queries about the rollout of EPS in the detained estate can be emailed to necsu.hjis@nhs.net.

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.

Further information

• NHS England notice about Rollout of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) to Detained Estate services
• EPS use in urgent and other care settings