Prescriptions

Guidance for GP practices when patients can’t view or order prescriptions in the NHS App, including error codes records. 

Only repeat prescriptions are orderable through the NHS App. What you can do may be specific to your GP system supplier (EMIS/OPTUM, TPP or Medicus).

You can

• give patients full visibility of their repeat prescriptions
• control if the patient can order repeat prescriptions
• amend how far before the order date the patient can request their repeat prescriptions
• manually amend the status of prescriptions from 'Pending' to 'Approved' or 'Rejected'
• control if the patient has to give a reason when submitting a prescription request
• can see when a patient is due a medication review, when they last ordered the medication, and if it’s a repeat, repeat dispensing, acute or private prescription

Patients can’t order acute prescriptions, but these are shown in the ‘Medicines’ section of the GP health record.

Repeat dispensing prescriptions will be visible in the NHS App, however, they can’t be ordered as this type of prescription requires a review by the GP.

Patients will see screens indicating they cannot order or view repeat prescriptions online, or they cannot access repeat prescriptions.

This means

1. the patients in new at the surgery
2. the Patient Facing Service (PFS) has been switched off
3. the practice has recently merged
4. there has been a clinical supplier change
5. the patient's account has been archived due to inactivity of 12 months

You can

• check is patient facing services are switched on
• if you’ve recently merged or changed clinical systems
• if the user has the correct permissions in your GP clinical system
• ask your patient to log out and in again

If the issue is ongoing raise this directly with our service desk, quoting the error reference or state the user cannot access anything.

This means

1. your patient needs a medical review
2. it’s too early to order
3. your patient has a repeat dispensing prescription
4. it’s an acute prescription

How can you help

• check the patient has repeat prescriptions available to order in your GP system
• check the user has permission to order their prescriptions online in your GP system
• inform your patient when they can order their prescription again, if they are due a review, or the prescription is not a repeat