New Government Funding Released to Support Electronic Prescribing

13 NHS trusts will receive a share of a £78 million fund to support electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA) to improve patient safety.

New electronic systems will help hospital trusts move away from handwritten prescriptions:

• reducing potentially deadly medication errors by up to 50% when compared with the old paper systems 
• building up a complete electronic record 
• ensuring fast access to potentially lifesaving information on prescribed medicines 
• reducing duplication of information-gathering 

The 13 NHS trusts have been chosen because they provide a mixture of acute, mental health and community services. They will receive a share of £16 million funding for 2018 to 2019.

The roll-out of full ePMA across healthcare organisations is designed to improve efficiency in the healthcare system by:

• making the most effective use of medicines 
• increasing the use of digital systems to generate additional data sets 

This will help clinicians gain a greater understanding of the management of diseases.

Andrew Davies, Director of Hospital Pharmacy, NHS Improvement said "There is evidence that electronic prescribing and medicines administration systems will improve safety for patients, reducing the risk of harm and ensuring high-quality efficient patient care which is as safe as possible.

I’m delighted so many trusts have submitted successful bids to accelerate the introduction of these systems to provide safer, better quality patient care. We are now looking for more trusts to bid for funding by the end of January."

The first regional allocations are as follows:

• Bolton NHS Foundation Trust - £1,020,000 
• The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust - £750,000 
• Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust - £1,600,000 
• Humber NHS Foundation Trust - £300,000 
• Northern Lincolnshire And Goole NHS Foundation Trust - £940,000 
• Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust - £820,000 
• University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust - £2,190,000 
• Barts Health NHS Trust - £1,700,000 
• East London NHS Foundation Trust  - £740,000 
• East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust - £1,450,000 
• Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust - £1,170,000 
• Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust - £1,620,000 
• East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust - £1,700,000