National Digital Medicines Support

Background

NHS England commissioned CSUs to support the Digital medicines programme. NHS Midlands and Lancashire (NHS ML) were the lead CSU. Support was developed over 6 months to deliver:

• A summary report to describing requirements to enable the electronic prescription service (EPS) implementation 
• Development of a Health Economic EPS analysis tool
• Host a series of EPS workshops, to develop insights summaries and resources 
• Establish 7 Regional Digital Medicines networks 
• Development of the ePRaSE project
• A Future Medicines Delivery Project
• Support Communications and Engagement strategy development

Action

The NHSML Medicines Management and Optimisation (MMO) team led a collaborative programme involving 11 teams from NHS ML and NHS Arden & GEM CSUs. These teams were strategically aligned to ensure successful delivery of various programme goals. Contributors included staff from a wide range of units—Medicines Management, Nursing Urgent Care, The Strategy Unit, Transformation Unit, Improvement Unit, Peoples Team, Health Economics Unit, NHS Horizons, Digital Data and Technology, Communications and Engagement, and Subject Matter Experts. They worked closely with NHS England Digital Medicines to co-design and implement the programme

Impact

The NHS MMO team successfully led a collaborative, cross-functional programme to deliver NHS England Digital Medicines programme at pace and with a flexible approach, bringing key subject matter expertise to deliver a fast paced and complex initiative.

Agile Delivery

Teams adapted flexibly to shifting priorities, enabling the inclusion of new workstreams that were not initially included in the project.

Collaborative Partnerships

Strong working relationships were built with NHS England Digital Medicines, PMO, strategic leads, and communications teams, fostering shared ownership and alignment.

Effective Communication 

The ‘heartbeat’ communication rhythm engaged subject matter experts and supported content development, now being embedded into future PMO strategies.

EPS insights

A series of workshops and stakeholder engagement sessions were established resulting in a status report, a health economics toolkit and several supporting resources being developed.

Regional Networks  

High engagement across all regions, with positive feedback on facilitation, structure, and momentum. Participants valued the cross-boundary collaboration and clear direction.

Learning Lab Development for the ePRaSE project

A comprehensive literature review on electronic prescribing systems was completed, with a long-term plan and stakeholder engagement underway.