Pharmacy queues 'cut massively' due to new scheme

A new electronic prescription service has stopped patients from being prescribed drugs they are allergic to 100 times, Jersey's Deputy Medical Director has said.

The service was introduced permanently in May to reduce waiting times at the hospital pharmacy and improve patient safety.

Simon West said the Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (EPMA) was enhancing safety by "reducing the likelihood of prescribing errors".

Mr West said: "Between March 2023 and April 2024 the system prevented 3,300 duplicate prescriptions and alerted clinicians to 1,500 potentially harmful significant drug interactions" which is a reaction between two or more drugs.

He added that it had also stopped long queues and reduced complaints from patients.

Islander Jenna Johnson-Rayner, who has to collect a monthly prescription, said waiting times have "improved massively".

"In the past I would admit it has been horrendous," she said.

"There have been waits for over an hour at a time.

"Sometimes you have had to go away and come back multiple times in one day in order to get your prescription.

"Since they brought in the electronic prescriptions, it is so much better. I went two days ago and there was no queue at all".

Kevin Smith, the head of pharmacy, said the department handled about 800 items a day which translated to three items every two minutes.

He said the new system had reduced the number of people waiting because they no longer had to queue to drop off a prescription.

He said: "The queue is almost all people collecting rather than people dropping off prescriptions as well.

"So it reduces the size of the queue but it does take time still to process a prescription when somebody drops it off so that time we can utilise in better ways."

Mr Smith said "the more automation we can bring in, the better it is for everybody".

"For our staff, for the safety of what we do and the efficiency -over time that will also improve," he said.

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