GPIT Advice on Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions

16 June 2020

GPIT Advice on Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions

In an attempt to relieve pressure on GPs and pharmacists and support patient care in the community, the Minister for Health signed, on Friday April 03 2020, two statutory instruments relating to prescribing. These are temporary amendments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The full details of the statutory instruments and the associated briefing notes are available from the references below.

This current update deals with the changes to GP work practices made possible by these amendments.

 

What has changed?

GPs can use Healthmail to send prescriptions to a pharmacy. Where prescriptions are sent electronically via Healthmail, there is no requirement for the signed paper prescription to follow at a later date. The prescription can be in the body of the Healthmail message or sent as an attached image. All the usual necessary information needs to be present in the prescription. This applies to both private and GMS prescriptions and includes prescriptions for Schedule 2, 3 and 4 Controlled Drugs.

GMS prescriptions can now be printed on A4 plain paper and sent as paper or in electronic format to pharmacies.

 

How this changes GP work practices

Where your GP practice software supports Healthmail for prescribing, for example in Health One or CompleteGP, the GP can send a prescription directly to the patient's pharmacy via Healthmail.

Where your GP practice software system does not support Healthmail for prescribing, for example Socrates and Helix Practice Manager, there are two options:

 

Other Changes for Pharmacists

Please note the changes in the four bullet points above do not apply to Schedule 2 or 3 Controlled Drugs. For more details on Schedule 2 or 3 Controlled Drugs, please read the advice from the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, referenced below.

 

References