Pharmacies may need to make emergency medicine supplies under Pharmacy First amid IT issues affecting prescription systems, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has suggested.

Alastair Buxton, CPE director of NHS services, told The Pharmacist today that patients unable to contact their general practice for an urgent supply of a prescription medicine could seek assistance from NHS 111.

This 'may result in them being referred to a pharmacy where the pharmacist will assess whether an emergency supply of a medicine can be made under the Pharmacy First service,' he said.

Global IT issues have affected multiple IT systems including some users of GP and pharmacy system provider EMIS, NHS England confirmed earlier today. 

And CPE added that issues were impacting 'GP practices using the EMIS Web GP IT system and some users of the community pharmacy EMIS ProScript EPS system'.

While affected pharmacies could 'activate relevant parts of their business continuity plan', this 'will inevitably result in delays to them being able to access and dispense prescriptions from the NHS Electronic Prescription Service,' Mr Buxton told The Pharmacist.

And affected GPs were likely to issue hand-written prescriptions 'where there is an urgent need for a medicine' as part of their business continuity plans, Mr Buxton said.

'People who are urgently seeking a supply of a prescription medicine should contact their general practice. If that is not possible, they can seek assistance from 111 online or the NHS 111 phone service, which may result in them being referred to a pharmacy where the pharmacist will assess whether an emergency supply of a medicine can be made under the Pharmacy First service,' he added.

A statement posted on the CPE website said that EMIS ProScript has advised its pharmacy users that it will issue further updates as it works to fix these issues.

And CPE reminded contractors to use 'normal reporting routes' to report any issues to their IT supplier.

Meanwhile, Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA), reported that 'more patients are being referred to pharmacies for minor ailments' while GP appointment systems were down.

'Pharmacies are experiencing delays in prescriptions arriving through GP system as the systems are down, and there are also delays in receiving medicines in stock due to some wholesalers experiencing IT system failures,' she said.

'We are asking the public to be patient if there are delays because these issues are outside of our control and we are doing everything we can to ensure patients receive their medicines and treatments,' she added.

The Pharmacist has contacted EMIS for comment.