Will the Minister provide an update on e-prescribing and the role of Community Pharmacy Wales in its rollout?
I announced on 20 September 2021 the launch of the ePrescribing programme in Wales (https://gov.wales/written-statement-statement-eprescribing-programme); this is now known as the Digital Medicines’ Transformation Portfolio (DMTP) to more accurately describe the scope of work. This will digitise the medicines’ management journey and processes in Wales across primary and secondary care, along with the ability for Welsh citizens to reorder and manage their prescribed medicines via the NHS Wales App. in due course.
Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) has made excellent progress in establishing the sizeable team required to deliver all aspects of DMTP. A senior responsible officer (SRO) and a Deputy SRO, Programme Director and Programme Lead are appointed. A further 30 roles have also been filled across the four themes within the Portfolio (primary care, secondary care, patient app (delivered via the NHS Wales App) and shared medicines repository (in conjunction with the National Data Resource programme). Recruitment continues at pace for the remaining vacancies.
DMTP is currently investigating the feasibility of potential primary care technical solutions, particularly considering how primary care settings outside of General Practitioners would be able to use them. In secondary care, DMTP is progressing a procurement activity which will allow Health Boards to choose a system from a short framework which fits their local requirements, whilst also meeting the core central requirements across Wales - including the requirement for this to be an open platform to allow the sharing of medicines’ information between Health Boards and health practitioners across Wales.
I have also met with key stakeholders including Community Pharmacy Wales who will be engaged in the delivery of DMTP; these will be members of the professional stakeholders group due to be established soon.