Patients with Boots as a nominated pharmacy in England can now use the NHS app to see whether their prescription is ready to collect.
The Pharmacist understands that Boots is the first supplier to roll out the functionality, with other suppliers planned to go live soon.
Andy Earnshaw, involved in developing the NHS app integration for Cegedim Rx, described the functionality as a 'win, win' for both patients and pharmacy teams.
What does the NHS app update look like?
More than 1,300 Boots pharmacies across England are now using the prescription tracking functionality, which allows patients to monitor the status of their repeat prescription through the NHS app.
The app will also show where the pharmacy has been unable to dispense one or more of the items – shown as 'item cancelled' in the patient-facing app.
According to the Community Pharmacy England (CPE) IT Group, Boots is one of four suppliers involved in the initial roll-out of the functionality –along with Cegedim, Invatech, and Apotec.
Boots has confirmed to The Pharmacist that is is the first supplier to roll out prescription tracking within the NHS app.
'Win, win' for patients and pharmacies
And Andy Earnshaw, product manager for patient app integration at Cegedim Rx, said its integration with the NHS App, which will allow patients to track their prescription status is due to go live in the New Year.
He added that the pilot version had 'already enabled more than 300,000 prescription updates to be shared'.
'For patients, being able to clearly and digitally track when their prescription will be ready for collection will be a huge convenience.
'And for our [pharmacy contractor] customers, it’ll mean time saved in managing incoming patient prescription collection enquiries. It’s win, win and another great example of how the NHS is working hard to create a more joined up, digital first service for both pharmacies and patients,' he said.
'Our sole aim at Cegedim Rx is to support the NHS and community pharmacies in delivering an optimal patient experience, while also minimising further burden on already overstretched frontline teams', he added.
Invatech, and Apotec have been approached for comment.
And CPE said that the NHS App team will engage with more suppliers from January 2025.
It has also recently been revealed that IT suppliers are testing pharmacy access to GP records.
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