Electronic Prescription Service for community services set to increase service user choice

SWL Digital Pioneer Fellow: Louis Ovonlen

Role: Lead Specialist Pharmacist and Associate Chief Clinical Information Officer
Organisation: South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust (SWLStG)

Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) for Community Services at SWLStG

Summary: The Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) provides the capacity for prescriptions to be sent electronically by clinicians to community pharmacies of the patient’s choice. This digitally enabled process is supported by the National Spine, replacing the need to handwrite prescriptions for Community Services at SWLStG.

Story of the project

The project began following a seminar I attended at Rewired 2024 in Birmingham, led by the North East London Foundation NHS Trust and CLEO Systems.

The presentation provided insight on the requirements, operations and benefits realised from deploying an Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) within their organisation. The EPS is widely utilised in primary healthcare services, with over 95% of all prescriptions currently generated electronically. It is increasingly being adopted by secondary care, improving efficiency, promoting independence and supporting access to prescriptions.

Following this presentation, I discussed with our Chief Pharmacist on how an EPS would deliver similar benefits to our trust. Contact was then made with the CLEO team to take our interest forward.

The aim of the project is to deliver a robust solution to SWLStG that will transform the current paper-based FP10 processes and all associated risks into a digital method of prescribing FP10s across outpatient services. 

An EPS-enabled electronic outpatient prescribing system has the potential to deliver the following high-level benefits: 

• Improved sustainability and carbon footprint;
• Reduction in stationery costs; 
• Reduction in service user and staff travel costs and time; 
• Improved prescribing administration and time savings for clinicians; 
• Improved medicine formulary compliance and governance; 
• Improved safety and security of prescription; 
• Increased service user choice of pharmacy; 
• Flexibility for prescribers (ability to prescribe out of hours and remotely); and 
• Improved sustainability and carbon footprint.

Developing a business case commenced on the back of very positive feedback from clinicians across the trust during stakeholder engagement. The significance for the procurement of this solution was further bolstered following the Department of Health and Social Care’s mandate to reform the NHS, which included a shift from analogue to digital.

Driving project development through the SWL Digital Pioneer Fellowship

I applied for the fellowship owing to a keen interest on adopting digitally enabled practices, tools and solutions for improved healthcare delivery. I also wanted to intentionally expand my network of key people driving digital development within SWL and the wider NHS.

The fellowship has met my expectations. It has supported the development of key leadership skills, as well as broadened my perspective on digital enabled healthcare service delivery.

The Fellowship has enabled me to refine my approach to stakeholder engagement, enhance the development of my business case and, crucially, provided a safe space to discuss challenges and approaches for gaining support for my project.

Outcomes

The distinctive challenge of this project has been a lack of available funding, which emerged following constraint measures to enable Cost Improvement Programmes (CIPs) mandated by South West London ICB.

Though the project received widespread acceptance and support from stakeholders, funding constraints have resulted in a delay for this financial year. This has resulted in the project being planned as a cost pressure for the next financial year (2026/27).

Information available from other trusts who have implemented the EPS solution have shown very positive patient feedback, significant savings in cost and efficiency in clinician times. The CLEO solution is now being used in 25 NHS organisations, indicating growing adoption of the solution in line with the Department of Health and Social Care’s expectation for deployment where possible.  

Next steps

Future development of the solution would be achieved with further technical integrations with the existing clinical systems available in the trust, such as our Electronic Patient Record (EPR) systems: RIO and IAPTUS, as well as our internet electronic Prescription Management and Administration (ePMA) system.

For more information on the SWL Digital Pioneer Fellowship and check out our Innovation Directory to browse through the full list of Fellows.