This year the Digital Services Pharmacy Team, with tremendous support of the Pharmacy Department, have successfully implemented Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration across Neath Port Talbot Hospital.

The instant benefits observed from using the e-prescribing system include substantial efficiencies – enabling time to be released to care – while prescriptions are legible and complete, thus saving time querying information with prescribers. The need to search for a medication chart has been eliminated, too, as well as the need to rewrite full or missing charts.

Furthermore, there are efficiencies on discharge where the pharmacy team are no longer required to frontload the discharge prescription, as prescribers can easily transcribe discharge medications from the inpatient chart. Medicines reconciliation and pharmaceutical care plans are now documented electronically and stay with the patient’s record when transferred to another ward.