Gibraltar Health Authority launches electronic prescription system
28 April 2008
The Gibraltar Health Authority (GHA) has introduced a new
prescription transcribing and dispensing system. The
application enables the GHA's GP clinics and pharmacies to store and
share patient medication information in a central web-based system. It
incorporates the UK's leading drug knowledgebase,
the Multilex Drug Data File from First DataBank Europe (FDBE).
Using a combination of unique prescription IDs and unique patient
IDs, the application provides a safe and secure means of dispensing. The
GP transcribes the prescription which, once allocated a unique reference
number, is electronically sent to a central system. The patient can then
take their prescription to the most convenient pharmacy for dispensing.
As all registered Gibraltar patients have unique patient IDs recently
issued with their combined Gibraltar National Health Card and European
Health Insurance Card (E111), the prescription information can be
retrieved securely by the pharmacist using this ID, along with the
unique prescription number printed on the paper-based prescription. The
system will improve communications between healthcare professionals,
reduce dispensing time and facilitate reimbursement for prescription
charges.
Initially the system will be accessible to all GHA GPs and
pharmacists in Gibraltar via the internet. Next steps are to deploy the
system to hospital consultants and to make important patient medication
information available to departments such as A&E, where fast access to
this type of information can be critical to patient care.
