Respecting Patient Choice for EPS nominations – an update
In November last year, we reported a number of concerns about EPS pharmacy nominations and re-nominations without patient consent. We also said we were concerned that certain IT functionality available to some pharmacy owners appeared to facilitate automatic patient re-nomination (without patient consent) and were discussing this issue with NHS England.
We can confirm that NHS England agreed with our concerns and wrote to pharmacy IT system suppliers, indicating to them, for example, that:
‘…Nomination Guidelines
- Nomination can only change at the direct request of the patient. Prescribing and Dispensing Contractors, and System suppliers must not influence or manage a patient nomination. Patients must remain free to change a nomination at any time and via the mechanism of their choosing.
- A patient can request a change of nomination by their GP, any community pharmacy and through the NHS App at any time….
System Behaviour
- PMR systems should support patient choice and allow contractors to adhere to the nomination guidelines above.
- The use of auto nomination … contravenes the principles of patient choice and the nomination guidelines. PMR Systems must not provide this as a feature.
- PMR systems should not bulk review PDS against PMR patient data…’
NHS England will soon be publishing updated guidance on how pharmacy teams and IT system suppliers should process nominations and access the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) nomination information held in the NHS Patient Demographic Service (PDS). We will update the sector once it is published.
