Contractors have been told to comply with the Welsh information governance (IG) toolkit or risk losing its “ability to continue using Electronic Prescription Service (EPS)”.

Community Pharmacy Wales (CPW) said 84 Welsh community pharmacies had been notified that they are “non-compliant” within the Welsh IG toolkit and told them to “ensure any required actions are completed by November 30”.

The Welsh IG toolkit is a self-assessment tool to measure your level of compliance against national information governance standards and legislation. It shows whether an organisation “can be trusted to maintain the confidentiality and security of both personal and business information”.

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CPW said having a ‘minimum expectations met’ or ‘expectations exceeded’ status is a “mandatory requirement for access to the NHS Spine and continued use of the EPS”.

It said pharmacies notified of their non-compliance will need to update and submit their toolkit assessment as well as complete any outstanding remediation activity and “seek support from their data protection officer where needed”.

It follows CPW warning pharmacy contractors not to submit EPS claims early after concerns had been raised about the practice in March.