Pharmacy IT workstreams update published as IT group meets
Community Pharmacy England has released an IT update bulletin ahead of the Community Pharmacy IT Group’s (CP ITG) Spring meeting.
Developments which will be discussed at the meeting include:
- Update on EPS Patient Nomination Protocols and required system changes: NHS England has shared a draft version of revisions to their Patient Nomination Protocols with the group for consideration. The updated guidance clarifies how pharmacy teams, IT system suppliers and others must manage nominations and use nomination‑related information from the NHS Personal Demographics Service (PDS). The revised nomination guidance document will extend to further types of companies, including technology providers, and will be formally published on the NHS webpages shortly. (Note, this ties into wider work by Community Pharmacy England to tackle inappropriate EPS pharmacy nomination practices.)
- Proposals to improve GTINs and 2D barcodes on UK medicines packs: The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency have been made aware of concerns about the limited availability and consistency of Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) and the declining presence of 2D data matrix barcodes on UK‑only medicines packs. There is a related petition proposing that this be discussed in Parliament.
- The Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag (RADF) information standard and associated flags: The NHS has introduced a new Information Standard for the RADF. This standard sets out how health and care providers should record and share information about people who require reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010. RADF will be used across all NHS services to help staff recognise a person’s needs more quickly and deliver safer, more inclusive care. Further background is available via our pharmacy news update on the RADF standard. The group will be discussing uses of RADF and possible future possibilities of the flags being integrated into community pharmacy IT systems .
- Single Patient Record: Following the publication of the 10 Year Health Plan, the NHS continues to plan major upgrades of how patient information is shared across healthcare. This includes the development of the new Single Patient Record (SPR) – a national initiative that aims to bring together key health information into one place, accessible to patients through the NHS App. Further information is now available on our new SPR page.
- NHS Digital Services for Integrated Care (NHS DSIC) programme: The DSIC programme aims to help ensure that pharmacy IT systems are developed in the right way—so they support work, align with NHS pharmacy services, protect patient data and connect smoothly with the wider NHS. Additional information is available on our new DSIC page.
Get involved
To request that Community Pharmacy England and the Community Pharmacy IT Group consider specific IT matters or to request to join future meetings (April onwards), please fill in our One-minute IT feedback/comment form.
The groups’ working document Next steps for pharmacy IT has been updated since the publication of the previous bulletin. If you would like to comment on the latest version document, please email da@cpe.org.uk.
The Spring meeting of the group will also highlight other opportunities for pharmacy teams to contribute to improving pharmacy IT. To learn more, please refer to:
- IT update one-page
- 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 IPA. Community Pharmacy England supports the group’s day-to-day work and provides the secretariat for the group. The group’s meetings and work also involve pharmacy owners and teams, system suppliers, NHSBSA, 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.
