Government admits target to eliminate paper prescribing by 2024 will be missed
19 October 2023
The Government has acknowledged that it will not meet its commitment to eliminate paper prescribing in hospitals and introduce digital or e-prescribing across the entire NHS by 2024.
Responding to a report by the Health and Social Care Committee’s independent Expert Panel, the Government accepted that ‘more work is needed’ and acknowledged that paper prescribing remains, which the Government states is in part is due to poor digital maturity and the funding available.
The Expert Panel’s report evaluating Government commitments on Pharmacy was published in July. Out of nine Government commitments separately evaluated over five areas, the Panel had rated two as ‘good’, five as ‘requires improvement’, and two as ‘inadequate’ including overall Government progress to eliminate paper prescribing.
In its response published today, the Government rejects the Panel’s finding that it had failed to meet a commitment to review the funding model for community pharmacy. The Panel concluded that demand for community pharmacy services had increased significantly with community pharmacies struggling to deliver services within the existing funding model, or even to remain open. The Panel had also concluded that the lack of a review of the funding model had negatively impacted on delivery of several commitments across pharmacy. In its response, the Government said that NHS England had committed to an Economic Analysis of the sector to inform future funding arrangements.
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Image credit: Tyler Allicock/UK Parliament