Electronic Repeat Dispensing

The electronic repeat dispensing section of the PSNC website has recently been updated.

Several new eRD factsheets/templates have been published, covering the following:

The benefits of eRD to contractors, general practice and patients (one-pager);
How the eRD cycle works (one-pager);
Working with GP practices to roll out eRD and optimise its use. This includes guidance on holding local meetings (business change workshops) to discuss the rollout or optimisation of eRD in a specific locality.
A business change workshop actions list template and
A repeat medicines synchronisation template form.

Devon CCG have produced a very useful leaflet which can be printed off and given to patients.

To view the leaflet Ordering and obtaining your repeat medication leaflet

The new contractual requirement for community pharmacy contractors and their teams to advise appropriate patients about the benefits of the NHS Repeat Dispensing Service will commence from March 2015.Pharmacy contractors will recall that this change was agreed as part of the 2014/15 funding settlement, and is intended to help significantly increase the proportion of patients using the service. This is because the service can free up time for GP practices; provide a more convenient service for patients; and also help pharmacies to manage their repeat prescription workload more efficiently.

As per the settlement agreement, the Department of Health has confirmed that from 1 March 2015 the community pharmacy Terms of Service will require that:

Pharmacy contractors must ensure that appropriate advice about the benefits of repeat dispensing is given to any patient who:

has a long term, stable medical condition (that is, a medical condition that is unlikely to change in the short to medium term), and
requires regular medicine in respect of that medical condition,

including, where appropriate, advice that encourages the patient to discuss repeat dispensing of that medicine with a prescriber at the provider of primary medical services whose patient list the patient is on.

Repeat dispensing has been an Essential service since 2005; the new requirement means that pharmacy teams will now need to actively work to identify appropriate patients and provide them with information about it. They may also like to speak to local GP practices who are likely to want to make use of the repeat dispensing service once they are EPS release 2 enabled.

To help contractors and their teams to ensure they are meeting the new requirement PSNC has produced a guidance document, setting out a range of suggested actions such as:

ensuring pharmacy teams are aware of local agreements;
discussing the service with local GP practices and reminding them of the benefits of it;
seeking to transfer patients already using managed repeats to repeat dispensing;
providing patients with information about the service; and
ensuring SOPs are updated.

eRD Toolkit

NEW POSTERS (2020)

Repeat Dispensing

Guidance:

Local Contacts for Smartcards:

See the Smartcards page of this website

Electronic Repeat Dispensing