Community pharmacies can “shape the development of future NHS digital services” by taking part in testing sessions for future independent prescribing (IP) claims and research discussions for the Single Patient Record (SPR).

Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has shared two opportunities for community pharmacies to be involved in ensuring “pharmacy perspectives are reflected in systems designed to support both clinical care and service delivery”.

Testing sessions are taking place between July 22 and August 5 to see if an early prototype of a new manage your service (MYS) process “might support future claiming for IP consultations” in the future.

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This has been developed by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DH) and the NHSBSA wants volunteers who are “currently” or “may consider” delivering IP services.

The “short, moderated usability” testing sessions will go through realistic scenarios and participant’s feedback will help the system be practical, easy to use, efficient and “aligned with real-world community pharmacy workflows”.

Informal one-hour interviews are also being organised for an “early discovery phase” of the SPR programme, which is developing a ‘Core Record’.

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The ‘Core Record’ is a “concise, standardised view of key patient information” which is meant to support “safe clinical decision-making” and especially for those seeing a patient “for the first time”.

The research discussions will gather the information pharmacies need to support patients, what challenges pharmacies have accessing patient information, and “what matters most” for safe clinical decision-making.

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Pharmacy teams can register their interest here, with those interested in the IP testing to submit by tomorrow noon.

It comes as a DH official said healthcare professionals who misuse the SPR will face serious consequences.

And a new report by the National Pharmacy Association has found that the majority of community pharmacists are “strongly supportive” of expanding IP but “face a system not yet built for it”.