Electronic Prescription Service

The Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) allows prescribers to send prescriptions electronically to a dispenser, such as a pharmacy, nominated by the patient. This makes the prescribing and dispensing process more efficient and convenient for patients and healthcare workers.

• EPS is already widely used in primary care with over 95% of all prescriptions in England now being produced electronically
• EPS is not a clinical prescribing system. It is only responsible for managing the workflow of prescriptions from prescribers to dispensers
• EPS is not strictly mandated, but it is strongly recommended for use by prescribing and dispensing services
• this service is live and is a platinum service, meaning it is available and supported 24 hours a day, 365 days a year

Click the play button to watch a short EPS video which lasts 1 minute and 26 seconds. 

Benefits of EPS include:

• prescribers can process prescriptions more efficiently
• dispensers can reduce paper use and improve stock control
• dispensers reduce the risk of dispensing errors compared to hand-written prescriptions
• patients can collect repeat prescriptions from a local pharmacy without visiting their GP
• patients can manage their nominated pharmacy and track prescriptions in the NHS App

Find out more about the benefits of EPS for prescribers, dispensers and dispensing doctors.

EPS is for patients, prescribers and dispensers. It is used in primary care in England and being rolled out in Wales. Its capability has been expanded to secondary and community care in England, including acute hospital trusts, community hospital trusts and mental health trusts.

EPS is secure, healthcare workers must be suitably authenticated and authorised to access it. For example, to update a record, a healthcare worker must be strongly authenticated via NHS Care Identity Service 2 (NHS CIS2).

If you are considering switching on EPS for any of your clinical services, our Digital Partnering team will offer support through the stages of implementation: email [email protected].

EPS roll out in Wales

Visit Digital Health and Care Wales to learn more about the benefits of EPS in Wales. If you have patients living close to the England - Wales border, find out if this affects you and what you need to do:

• Using EPS as a prescriber
• Using EPS as a dispenser

EPS roll out in secondary care

The NHS England Digital Medicines Programme has assisted 24 NHS trusts as of March 2024 to introduce EPS into a variety of secondary care services. These have ranged from inpatient cardiology to virtual wards for respiratory conditions, and community-based services including those supporting adults and young people with mental health needs.

Read more on the FutureNHS collaboration platform.

Digital medicines

• NHS App prescription tracking: The NHS App prescription tracking feature helps patients easily check the status of their prescriptions, reducing the need for calls to GPs and pharmacies. Launched in September 2024, the feature helps to improve patient experience and free up frontline staff time. Ongoing user research and data collection ensure the service continues to meet patient needs and deliver measurable benefits.
• Digital medicines data collection in hospitals in England: The Medicines Data workstream established the weekly collection of medicine data from hospitals in England in January 2025 and includes all NHS hospitals using an electronic Prescribing and Medicine Administration (ePMA) system. This data can be used for analysis and research, with the expectation this will improve health outcomes and safety for patients. Read more on the FutureNHS collaboration platform.

EPS allows prescribers to send prescriptions electronically to a dispenser (such as a pharmacy) of the patient's choice. Dispensers can then download the electronic prescriptions and:

• release and verify prescriptions
• return prescriptions
• send and amend dispense notifications
• withdraw dispense notifications
• send and amend dispense claims

This makes the prescribing and dispensing process more efficient and convenient for patients and staff.

Prescription tracking

EPS allows prescriptions to be tracked both by healthcare professionals and patients.

• Prescription tracking for healthcare professionals: The EPS clinical prescription tracker allows healthcare professionals at prescribing and dispensing sites to check the status and location of a prescription. We are currently working on a new and improved version of the tracker
• Prescription tracking for patients: The national prescription tracking service for patients allows patients to track the status and readiness of their prescribed items via the NHS App

The vision is for EPS to be available for use by all prescribers for all prescriptions in all care settings.

Our main technical objectives and priorities are:

• developing functionality to track the status of a prescription through the NHS App
• increasing the adoption of EPS in secondary care settings

What else would you like to see here? If you have any ideas on how to improve our website please get in touch. For more information about EPS, contact:

These services must be used alongside EPS to create a functioning prescribing or dispensing system.