Pharmacy IT workstreams update published after IT group meets

Community Pharmacy England has released a summary of the quarterly meeting of the Community Pharmacy IT Group (CP ITG)  held in June 2023.

IT policy development

Community Pharmacy England and CP ITG have pushed for progress on IT workstreams, for example ensuring pharmacy teams have easier access to the right records at the right time. Some of the development work regarding records and other IT workstreams has been incorporated into the Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care.

Community Pharmacy England, CP ITG, and NHS England are continuing to explore how to progress these IT workstreams. You can read the full community pharmacy IT bulletin and view a one-page factsheet summary. Selected developments and engagement opportunities are also outlined below.

Commenting on the changes, Community Pharmacy England’s IT Policy Manager, Daniel Ah-Thion, said:

“The prominence of digital solutions in the Primary Care Recovery Plan is a positive step. We hope such such developments will contribute towards easing some of the pressures being felt by pharmacy teams. The plan maps out that referral processes should be streamlined, and community pharmacy professionals will receive additional access to relevant clinical information from GP records, and community pharmacy will update GP records – for example following a blood pressure consultation in community pharmacy.”

Learn more and get involved

• Establishing a supplier development framework: NHS England’s Transformation Directorate plans to support community pharmacy suppliers  in transitioning to the ‘Digital Care Service Catalogue’.  The initial addition will include key items such as NHS Booking and Referral Standards and GP Connect integration work. Pharmacy teams are invited to provide feedback on the supplier preferred development infographic by using the provided IT feedback form.
• NHSmail multi-factor authentication (MFA): Community Pharmacy England and the NHSmail team have created a draft factsheet for pharmacy NHSmail users to test NHSmail multi-factor authentication (MFA). The NHSmail team anticipates most organisations will have fully implemented MFA between January to March 2024, with mandatory rollout of MFA pharmacy  and other sectors scheduled for January 2024. Pharmacy representatives are encouraged to try early usage by  enabling MFA in their NHSmail profile webpage and to provide feedback to it@cpe.org.uk regarding any experiences or support guidance required.
• New round of Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) user research: Pharmacy representatives can register their interest in participating in a new round of interview research concerning EPS trackability and improvements. Thirty-minute interviews are expected to take place.

To request that Community Pharmacy England and the Community Pharmacy IT Group consider IT matters or to request to join the next meeting, please fill out the One-minute IT feedback/comment form

The summer round-up also outlines opportunities for pharmacy teams to contribute towards and get involved with improving pharmacy IT.

To learn more, please refer to IT update one-page factsheet and  Quarterly IT update bulletin (pdf) / Quarterly IT update bulletin (html website version).

About the CP ITG

Members of the CP ITG are drawn from Community Pharmacy England, NPA, RPS, CCA and AIMp. Community Pharmacy England provides the secretariat for the group. The group’s meetings and work also involve pharmacy owners and teams, system suppliers, NHSBSA, NHS Digital, NHS England’s pharmacy team, NHS England’s Transformation Directorate, DHSC and PRSB. Read more about the group and it’s work: CP ITG webpage.