Abstract
Electronic repeat dispensing (eRD) has been part of the community
pharmacy contact since 2005 and a requirement in the General Medical
Services contract since 2019. eRD allows the prescribing of medicines
for stable long-term conditions for a defined period without
authorisation, consultation, by prescribing healthcare professionals
each time. NHS England highlights benefits of eRD as increased
efficiency in general practice of 2.7 million hours annually if 80% of
all repeat prescriptions are issued as eRD. Despite clear benefits to
patients, community pharmacies and general practices, the uptake of eRD
remains low and variable across general practices in West Yorkshire. The
current COVID-19 pandemic has placed huge strains on repeat prescribing
systems in general practice. The aim of the project was to investigate
the impact of COVID-19 on eRD in general practice and understand the key
enablers to its uptake. In conclusion, two main enabling factors
identified within this study that may lead to improved implementation
and uptake of eRD. These are integrating eRD into normal routine
workflows where prescribing authorisation is concerned and nominating an
internal eRD champion. Utilising eRD in the respective practices should
be considered due to potential efficiency gains and the increase in
average eRD utilisation observed in the study participating general
practices across West Yorkshire was from 7.2% average uptake in March
2020 to 10.4% November 2020. The stated benefits of eRD by NHS England
of 2.7 million hours per annum predates the roll of electronic
transmission of prescriptions suggesting further research is needed.