EMIS to join national roll-out of EPS CDs

EMIS plans to implement EPS Controlled Drugs (CDs) for all of their GP practices between Monday 25th March and Monday 8th April 2019. This follows the recent announcement that Vision and TPP have rolled out EPS CDs to their GP practices.

Once the EMIS rollout commences, it will result in a further substantial increase in the number of CD prescriptions that community pharmacies receive via EPS. It therefore continues to be important that all pharmacy staff, including locums, are aware of the roll-out and are prepared to dispense an electronic prescription for a Schedule 2 or 3 CD.

If you receive a prescription for a Schedule 2 or 3 CD via EPS, you should dispense it as you would any other electronic prescription.

Pharmacy teams may find it useful to check when local GP practices are going live by checking the roll-out schedule on the NHS Digital website.

Further information

At GP practices where roll-out has occurred, CD prescriptions (except for instalment FP10MDAs) can be processed electronically for all patients that use EPS for their existing prescriptions. For GP practices that are also taking part in the EPS Phase 4 pilot, CDs will be prescribed electronically for both patients with and without an EPS nomination.

The national roll-out dates for other GP systems will be announced by NHS Digital in due course.

If you receive an EPS Controlled Drug prescription and have any questions or comments, please contact info@psnc.org.uk. The usual EPS escalation route also applies for raising EPS technical queries.

Read more at EPS Controlled Drugs. Our webpages on CD validity and CD regulations also contain relevant information.