The News On ePrescribing Continues To Improve But It May Be Slightly Overhyped

 This appeared last week:

ePrescribing now available for majority of Australians

More than 3.5 million electronic prescriptions and repeats have already been generated by prescribers and dispensers across the country.

Matt Woodley

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03 Mar 2021

The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) has said it is ‘now confident’ that any patient who prefers an electronic prescription (ePrescription) should be able to have it dispensed at their local community pharmacy.
 
The declaration was made in a recent communique that also revealed that nearly 12,000 GPs have engaged in ePrescribing, while more than 95% of all Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)-approved community pharmacies are dispensing ePrescriptions.
 
Dr David Adam, a representative of the RACGP Expert Committee – Practice Technology and Management (REC–PTM), told newsGP the availability of ePrescribing will ‘definitely’ improve convenience and safety for patients.
 
‘It’s been a project that’s been in the works a long time and it’s really good to see that it’s coming to fruition,’ he said. ‘There’s been a lot of hard work by doctors and pharmacists and software developers.’
 
But Dr Adam is not certain whether all patients will be able to access ePrescribing just yet.
 
‘Obviously, they’re still rolling out across Australia,’ he said
 
‘As far as I know, we don’t have any here in Western Australia yet … [but] I’m pretty positive about the impact.’
 
While the practise continues to expand in use and popularity, Dr Adam said it remains crucial for GPs to contact their local pharmacy to ensure it has the capacity to handle ePrescriptions before writing one up for a patient.
 
‘And just make sure patients really understand that they’re only going to be able to go to pharmacies that are enabled for electronic prescribing,’ he said.
 
‘The other thing GPs need to think about is the potential costs in the future. At the moment, supply of SMS has been underwritten by the Department of Health. But that’s doesn’t sound like it’s going to last forever.
 
‘So GPs need to just be aware that there are going to be some costs incurred around electronic prescribing in the future.’

More here:

https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/professional/eprescribing-now-available-for-majority-of-austral

This is a good summary of where we are now but reminds us that there is a way to go.

First, when you think of the number of prescriptions written each day in Australia the 3.5 million number ever is pretty low – as in 2019 / 20 alone there we over 208 million prescriptions that were subsidised by the PBS and who know how many private scripts.

Second it is getting there but right now you have to ask if a pharmacist is e-script enabled.

Third we don’t yet have a nice portable device for ‘on the go’ prescribing electronically.

Fourth there is an extra cost for the GP over the paper equivalent.

It is clear with these stats the whole realm is still a very promising work in progress. The system works but it is yet to really take off!

David.