Spotlight: The battle for EPS nominations

Electronic Prescription System (EPS) nominations connect patients with the pharmacy where they can collect their medication – and often access other services, help and advice while they’re there.

Only patients can set up or change their nominated pharmacy – it can’t be done by the pharmacy or GP unless at the patient’s request.

But recently, reports have emerged that nominations have been changed without patient consent, sometimes in bulk, and possibly using an automatic system. One integrated care board received as many as 92 complaints about this in the last year.

In this ‘Spotlight’ episode of The PJ Pod, executive editor Carolyn Wickware and investigations editor Joanna Robertson discuss the impact that nomination switching has on patients and pharmacies, the scale of the issue and what’s being done about it.

This episode was produced by Geoff Marsh.