HEALTH minister Lord Howe recently visited health services in Trafford to find out how prescribing is being improved for local patients.

Lord Howe first visited Davyhulme Medical Centre, where GP Dr Tony Kaye has piloted and spearheaded Trafford’s electronic prescription service.

This service allows doctors or nurses to send prescriptions electronically to a dispenser - such as a pharmacy - of the patient’s choice.

The service makes authorising and collecting medication much more efficient for both patients and healthcare staff.

Patients don’t have to visit their GP practice to collect repeat paper prescriptions, which as well as being more convenient means that there is also no paper prescription to lose.

Patients can still choose where they collect their medication from, as they can nominate a pharmacy near to where they live, work or visit.

If necessary, prescriptions can also be electronically amended or cancelled, and the system also reduces the ability for prescription fraud to take place.

During the visit to Davyhulme Medical Centre, GP Dr Chris Tower talked the service through with the minister and gave him a demonstration of how it works.

The minister then visited Lloyds Pharmacy next door to the centre to see how its pharmacists use the system to dispense the medication to patients.

Pharmacist manager Barry McCann explained how the system can make things easier for people to manage their repeat prescriptions.

Dr Chris Tower, said: “It was great to be able to demonstrate to Earl Howe how the electronic prescription service works in practice, and it enabled us to have a really good discussion about how we can increase the use of the service, both locally and nationally.”

Barry McCann commented: “We were pleased that Earl Howe came to visit the pharmacy to hear about the introduction of the service and how things are actually working in practice here in Trafford.

"It’s really important that people with long term conditions continue to take their medicines and the new service is one way of helping them to better manage their repeat prescriptions.”

Along with Davyhulme Medical Centre, two other practices and their local pharmacies in the borough are currently using the electronic prescription service, with plans to sign up the remaining practices and dispensing outlets from April 2013 onwards.

The service is reliable, secure and confidential, and patients who choose to use it do not need to have access to a computer to do so.

Lord Howe said: “Electronic Prescription Services (EPS) are more convenient for patients, GPs and pharmacists, as well as being more efficient for health services than using paper prescriptions.

“In Trafford, the Davyhulme Medical Centre and the next door Lloyds Pharmacy are already using EPS and they are a great example of organisations working together with modern technology to improve patient experience.

“I hope other practices around the country will follow their example.”

The other GP practices currently using the Electronic Prescription Service are West Timperley Medical Centre and Flixton Road Medical Centre.