Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress has been made on implementing electronic prescribing and medicines administration systems across all NHS trusts by 2021.

Work has commenced on a variety of projects to help improve the administration of medicines in National Health Service trusts.

Following the announcement of £75 million of funding for ePrescribing and Medicines Administration (ePrescribing or ePMA) systems, work has commenced to accelerate the uptake and implementation across the NHS. Funding was provided to 13 trusts in 2018/19 all of whom have now commenced work. Applications for the second wave of funding have been received – a total of 48 bids are currently being reviewed for 2019/20 funding. A further round of funding is also planned for 2020/21.

Additionally, the Global Digital Exemplar programme is providing funding to support the roll-out of new, integrated technologies including ePrescribing and closed loop medicines administration and will share their learning as they make progress.

The sites that have led the way with closed loop medicines administration have provided valuable learning for what is a relatively new approach to support this process in England. Early work is demonstrating a positive impact on medication related administration error.