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The chief executive of a company that provides patient medication record (PMR) systems has petitioned the Government to introduce legislation banning technology that allows pharmacies to switch a patient’s nominated pharmacy without their consent or knowledge. 

Tariq Muhammad, the CEO of PMR provider Titan who started the petition, suggested some pharmacies are using their PMR systems to “auto-renominate patients in bulk”.

In an email to his customers last month, Muhammad said: “This practice is particularly prevalent amongst online businesses and certain community pharmacies which aggressively target nominations in their business model.”

He said another PMR provider was implementing a feature that will “check and switch patients every 14 days” and insisted Titan has “resisted the temptation to build such a feature”.

Warning “the problem is only likely to get worse”, Muhammad said: “It risks harming patients and impacting the NHS EPS (electronic prescription service) spine. Just imagine if every pharmacy had this feature, nominations would ping-pong between pharmacies and the patient would not know where their prescription has gone.”

He said pharmacies that switch patient EPS nominations risked delaying the supply of medicines and harming patients and insisted Titan has raised the issue with NHS England “on numerous occasions”.

In his petition, Muhammad said: “We want the Government to explicitly ban NHS system suppliers, by law, from providing any technology that may enable pharmacies to switch patient EPS nominations without informed and current consent, or in bulk using automation, and make it illegal for pharmacies to engage in this practice.”

The petition had secured just over 2,500 signatures and needs 10,000 to compel the Government to respond. With 100,000 signatures, the petition will be considered for debate in parliament.

Localised nomination wars where contractors get into ugly disputes

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) board member Mike Hewitson, who said he did not agree with auto-nomination of pharmacies and called for "a level playing field amongst all contractors", claimed “localised nomination wars where contractors get into pretty ugly disputes over nominations” were taking place.

“I am told that it is easier to leave Sky than it is to change your nomination from one large distance selling pharmacy,” he said in a post on Linkedin. “We've also seen that nominations get changed back to that company periodically and without apparent consent.”

He added: "Would it not be better for everyone if the only way to update a nomination was by a patient via the NHS app or in a practice?"

The NPA’s director of corporate affairs Gareth Jones told Independent Community Pharmacist that pharmacies should be stopped from changing patients’ nominations without their knowledge or consent and described the practice as “completely unacceptable”.

“Allowing patients to choose which pharmacy they would like to collect their medication from is common sense and the right thing to do,” he said.  “The NHS should allow patients the greatest possible flexibility so they can get the best service from their chosen pharmacy.”