Nearly three thousand people have signed a parliamentary petition, launched by Titan PMR’s chief executive Tariq Muhammad, to prevent unscrupulous tech firms from misusing the automatic renomination process in the electronic prescription service (EPS), which could limit patients' choices.
Muhammad said these firms are using various digital tools to thwart the rights of patients to nominate the pharmacy of their choice to collect medicines.
The process of digital renomination, built into some NHS-accredited patient medication record (PMR) systems, helps some pharmacy operators to claw back patients, even when they have opted for another outlet to collect their prescriptions.
With no defined law to prevent such unscrupulous practices, only the patients can disable the automatic renomination process.
Muhammad claimed that bots are now being used to en masse deny patients their choices.
The petition wants the Department for Health to uphold the interests of patients, the NHS, and community pharmacists.
As per the parliament rules, if a petition has 10,000 or more signatures, it demands a formal written response from the government.
The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) claims it has taken serious note of the complaints regarding patients' NHS EPS nominations getting changed without their consent.
Losing customers
“Many of our TITAN customers have said they are losing business to these pharmacies that are using these unethical tools,” Muhammad said.
“Some of them want us to develop the technology to allow them to compete. But we have resisted it."
He felt that using unscrupulous means to outdo each other would harm the patients and cripple the system.
Muhammad wants the regulators to take control of this situation and provide a level playing field.
Bristol-based Titan PMR was accredited by the NHS to join the electronic prescription service (EPS) in 2019.
