Preferred Pharmacy in England

The Preferred Pharmacy section in Consultation Manager - Patient Details - Patient Preferences allows you to record the patient's preferred pharmacy obtained from a list you have set up in Control Panel - File Maintenance. This list applies to paper prescriptions. However, when choosing a nominated dispenser, if electing a different pharmacy to the Preferred Pharmacy selection, the Preferred Pharmacy updates to match the elected EPS Nominated Dispenser.

It is recommended that you add the pharmacy Organisation Data Service (ODS) code in Control Panel to existing and new preferred pharmacy entries. You can obtain this from the Nominated Dispensers search list in Patient Details. Adding the ODS code means that Vision 3 can accurately match or mismatch the nominated and preferred pharmacy on the patient record.

Please note the following:

  • If a patient has a Nominated Pharmacy set up, when EPS is enabled the Preferred Pharmacy details are no longer used. The Nominated Pharmacy is used by default for all prescriptions issued to the patient.
  • If the patient does not have a Nominated Pharmacy the Preferred Pharmacy details are used by default for all prescriptions issued to this patient. EPS eligibility still applies, a patient is not eligible for EPS prescriptions without a nomination.
  • If the Preferred Pharmacy differs from the Nominated Pharmacy an alert displays to enable you to notify the patient of the change to their dispensing pharmacy. Once informed the alert can be removed and the Preferred Pharmacy updates to the same details as the Nominated Pharmacy to reflect this.

For example, a patient has their Preferred Pharmacy set to Boots and their Nominated Pharmacy set to Lloyds:

  • If the practice is not EPS2 enabled the prescriptions for the patient are, by default, sent to Boots.

  • If the practice becomes EPS2 enabled, the prescriptions for the patient are automatically sent to Lloyds by instead. An alert displays in Consultation Manager to enable you to notify the patient of the change.

Reminder:

  • Preferred Pharmacy is used to record the patients’ preference for their paper prescriptions, this is maintained by you.
  • EPS Nominated Dispensers is used to record the patients’ preference for their electronic prescriptions, this is maintained by you or the pharmacy and is transmitted via PDS.

The patients pharmacy preferences can be viewed from Consultation Manager, select the Patient Details tab and then Preferences.

If you receive an EPS nomination that differs from the Preferred Pharmacy, an EPS Nomination Mismatch message displays in the Alerts pane.

Important - Preferred Pharmacy - NACS Code - For existing and new preferred pharmacy entries, we strongly recommend you add the Pharmacy NACS code in the Identifiers tab. If you do not add the NACS code to the preferred pharmacy and the same pharmacy is selected as the patient’s nominated dispenser with a different description, the mismatch alert displays in Consultation Manager. NACS code can be found in the nominated dispenser list in Consultation Manager - Patient Details.
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