The Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) is an NHS service. It gives you the chance to change how your GP sends your prescription to the place you choose to get your medicines or appliances from.

What does this mean for you?

If you collect your repeat prescriptions from your GP you will not have to visit your GP practice to pick up your paper prescription. Instead, your GP will send it electronically to the place you choose, saving you time.

You will have more choice about where to get your medicines from because they can be collected from a pharmacy near to where you live, work or shop.

You may not have to wait as long at the pharmacy as there will be time for your repeat prescriptions to be ready before you arrive.

Is this service right for you?

Yes, if you have a stable condition and you:

• don’t want to go to your GP practice every time to collect your repeat prescription.
• collect your medicines from the same place most of the time or use a prescription collection service now.

 It may not be if you:

• don’t get prescriptions very often.
• pick up your medicines from different places.

How can you use EPS?

You need to choose a place for your GP practice to electronically send your prescription to. This is called nomination. You can choose:

• a pharmacy. a dispensing appliance contractor (if you use one).
• your dispensing GP practice (if you are eligible).

Ask any pharmacy or dispensing appliance contractor that offers EPS or your GP practice to add your nomination for you. You don’t need a computer to do this.

Can I change my nomination or cancel it and get a paper prescription?

Yes you can. If you don’t want your prescription to be sent electronically tell your GP. If you want to change or cancel your nomination speak to any pharmacist or dispensing appliance contractor that offers EPS, or your GP practice. Tell them before your next prescription is due or your prescription may be sent to the wrong place.

Is EPS reliable, secure and confidential?

Yes. Your electronic prescription will be seen by the same people in GP practices, pharmacies and NHS prescription payment and fraud agencies that see your paper prescription now. Sometimes dispensers may see that you have nominated another dispenser. For example, if you forget who you have nominated and ask them to check or, if you have nominated more than one dispenser. Dispensers will also see all the items on your reorder slip if you are on repeat prescriptions.

For more information please visit the NHS Choices website.

When you request a prescription online, you can have your prescription sent electronically to a pharmacy of your choice. This is called a nomination.

Once you nominate a pharmacy:

• you will no longer need to collect paper prescriptions from your GP surgery
• your nominated pharmacy will receive your prescriptions until you change or remove your nominated pharmacy
• any outstanding prescriptions you have ordered may still arrive at your current nominated pharmacy

You can nominate a high street pharmacy by using the NHS App or logging in to the NHS website using a web browser. A high street pharmacy is where you collect your medicines in person. They may also deliver to your home.

If you do not nominate a pharmacy you can collect your medication using the prescription barcode in the NHS App from any pharmacy. Online-only pharmacies send your medicines in the post. To nominate an online-only pharmacy, you must register with the pharmacy through their website or contact them. It's not possible to nominate an online-only pharmacy using the NHS App or website.

View a list of online-only pharmacies

For urgent medicines that have previously been prescribed as repeat prescriptions, released prisoners can access these by calling NHS 111. Please see also Emergency prescriptions - NHS 111.

Pharmacy First Service

• Patients can access care for a specific range of conditions using the Pharmacy First Service, which enables them to get certain prescription medications directly from a pharmacy, without a GP appointment.
• Healthcare professionals can use the NHS Service Finder to find pharmacies participating in this service and patient information is available here.
• Patients can contact 111 or access 111 online to be referred to a pharmacy that provides the full range of Pharmacy First services.

NHS Pharmacy Contraception Service

• For women being released from prison, the NHS Pharmacy Contraception Service provides an accessible and convenient place to receive advice and support for contraception management.  This includes the supply of oral contraception that is exempt from prescription charges.
• Health and justice providers, as well as other healthcare professionals, can refer women to this service or they can refer themselves.
• Individuals do not need to be registered with a GP to access this service. Pharmacies will only inform the GP practice that individuals have accessed the service, with their consent.
• See here for details of pharmacies that offer the contraceptive pill without a prescription.

An easy and convenient way to order your repeat prescription. The telephone number is: 01246 588 860, and opening hours are 08:00am until 16:00pm, Monday to Friday. 

If you are struggling to get through to the MOL on the phone and have access to email, you can send a request for a call back to: ddccg.northmolonlinerequests@nhs.net or ddccg.southmolonlinerequests@nhs.net.

You will need to include your full name, date of birth, contact telephone number and the name of your GP practice.  A call advisor will aim to make contact with you within 48 hours (excluding weekends and Bank Holidays) and make three attempts to contact you.  Further information about the MOL can be found here - joinedupcarederbyshire.co.uk/your-services/medicines-order-line

The MOL now offers an online ordering form if you do not wish to wait in the queue. The online form has many benefits - 

• Available 24/7
• You don't need to create an account
• They do not need to call you back to process your request

The online form is available on www.derbyshiremol.nhs.uk and only takes a few minutes to complete. All online requests willl take 48 hours to process.

Effective from 1^st September 2024, the Medicine Order Line (MOL) will no longer process medication requests received through ECHO, Healthera, or any other pharmacy apps. After this time, all patient-initiated medication requests via ECHO, Healthera, or any other pharmacy apps will be re-directed by the pharmacy app provider to the patient's GP Practice email address instead of the MOL email address. The email requests will then be processed by the practice. 

The Derbyshire Prescribing Service (DPS) incorporating the Medicines Order Line (MOL) is working hard to meet high level telephone call demand with the staffing capacity available. In the run up to Christmas we are keen to try and maintain patient experience and effectiveness within this service and ensure that those patients that are unable to order medicines via alternative routes can continue to access this service in a timely way, therefore we are asking for your help in promoting alternative methods of repeat prescription ordering for those patients/carers who are able.

Practice online health and prescription services and the NHS App have been improved and now offer useful functions to enable patients to effectively manage their repeat prescriptions where they are able to use a smartphone or computer. The MOL team will continue to actively assess appropriate and digitally enabled patients to use digital alternatives, including the MOL online form, and offer support and information to assist patients to make the switch.

We would welcome your support of the promotion of the NHS App for suitable patients. Helpful resources can be found at Ordering repeat prescriptions in the NHS App (promotional pack) - NHS Digital.

If you have questions about your medicine, your local pharmacists can answer these. They can also answer questions on medicines you can buy without a prescription.

The NHS website has information on how your medicine works, how and when to take it, possible side effects and answers to your common questions.

• Go to Medicines A to Z (nhs.uk)

If you would like to speak to someone at the GP surgery about your prescription: please ring your surgery and a member of The Reception Team will direct your query to the appropriate clinician.

Medication reviews

If you have a repeat prescription, we may ask you to come in for a regular review. When requesting your repeat prescription online, if you receive a message asking you to schedule a medication review, please phone the surgery to request your repeat prescription.  The Reception Team will process your prescription request and if appropriate arrange for a GP to complete an non-appointment based medication review

Prescription charges

Find out more about prescription charges (nhs.uk).

If you have any further queries:

Darley Dale Medical Centre: 01629 733205 (Phone lines open at 8am)

Youlgreave Medical Centre: 01629 636207 (Phone lines open at 9am)

Winster Medical Centre: 01629 650207 (Phone lines open at 9am)

Take it to the pharmacy you got it from or bring it in to the surgery. Do not put it in your household bin or flush it down the toilet.

About pharmacists

As qualified healthcare professionals, pharmacists can offer advice on minor illnesses such as:

• coughs
• colds
• sore throats
• tummy trouble
• aches and pains

They can also advise on medicine that you can buy without a prescription.

• Find a pharmacy (nhs.uk)

Many pharmacies are open until late and at weekends. You do not need an appointment.

Most pharmacies have a private consultation room where you can discuss issues with pharmacy staff without being overheard.