The National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts) Regulations 2015

Electronic prescriptions

57.—(1) A prescriber may only order drugs, medicines or appliances by means of an electronic prescription if—

(a) the Board authorises the contractor to use the Electronic Prescription Service;

(b) the patient to whom the prescription relates has—

(i) nominated one or more dispensers,

(ii) confirmed the intention to use that dispenser (or one of them) for the purposes of obtaining the drugs, medicines or appliances ordered on the electronic prescription in question, and

(iii) consented to the use of an electronic prescription on the particular occasion; and

(c) the prescription is not—

(i) for a controlled drug within the meaning of section 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971(1) (which relates to controlled drugs and their classification for the purposes of that Act), other than a drug which is for the time being specified in Schedules 2 to 5 to the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001, or

(ii) a bulk prescription issued for a school or institution under regulation 63.

(2) A health care professional may not order home oxygen services by means of an electronic prescription.

(3) In relation to a patient who is a child or an adult who lacks capacity to nominate a dispenser, paragraph (1)(b) applies as if the reference to the patient to whom the prescription relates included a reference to—

(a) where the patient is a child—

(i) either parent, or in the absence of both parents, the guardian or other adult who has care of the patient,

(ii) a person duly authorised by a local authority to whose care the patient has been committed under the Children Act 1989(2), or

(iii) a person duly authorised by a voluntary organisation by which the patient is being accommodated under the Children Act 1989; or

(b) where the patient is an adult who lacks capacity to make such a request, the patient’s relative, primary carer, a donee of a lasting power of attorney granted by that person or a deputy appointed for that person by a court under the Mental Capacity Act 2005(3).

(4) A prescriber who orders drugs, medicines or appliances by means of an electronic prescription must, in the case of—

(a) an electronic repeatable prescription, issue the patient, if the patient so requests, with a form provided by the Board for the purpose of recording details of that prescription and linked to that prescription by a number contained on the form; and

(b) an electronic prescription form, issue the patient, if the patient so requests, with a written record of the prescription which has been created.

(1)

1971 c.38. Section 2 was amended by paragraphs 1 and 2 of Schedule 17 to the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 (c. 13).

(2)

1989 c.41.

(3)

2005 c.9.