Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
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2256. To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to a report (details supplied); his views on same; the progress on the implementation of an e-prescribing system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20303/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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My Department is aware of the HIQA Recommendations on the Implementation of a National Electronic Patient Summary in Ireland, published in January 2021. Key stakeholders in digital health and ePharmacy, including officials from my Department, were members of the advisory group that developed the recommendations. In 2019, my Department approved HIQA National Standards on information requirements for a national electronic patient summary and information requirements for national community-based ePrescribing to support the roll-out of eHealth, as envisioned in the eHealth Strategy and the Sláintecare Implementation Strategy.

The implementation of ePrescribing is a significant programme of work and will take time to embed in acute and primary care settings. To support access to prescriptions during the Covid-19 pandemic, a new service to facilitate the secure electronic transfer of prescriptions (ETP) between GPs and community pharmacy was deployed in response to Covid-19.

Electronic transfer of prescriptions is just one aspect of the large programme of work involved in the full implementation of ePrescribing. This service has proven to be successful with approximately 50,000 scripts now being transferred electronically between GPs, community pharmacies every day. To build on this work, the HSE has established an ePharmacy Programme which will be responsible for the implementation of a national ePrescribing solution for the health service.