7% After a Year: The Electronic Prescribing System Nobody Uses

In January 2025, the CEO of the organisation responsible for digital prescribing across Wales told the Senedd that 7% of GP practices were using electronic prescriptions. In England, the same capability has been universal for over a decade. The programme DHCW calls its greatest success is the clearest measure of its failure. [Source: Senedd Health and Social Care Committee evidence session, January 2025]

Your prescription is handwritten because DHCW could not deliver what England delivered ten years ago.

The Numbers

Electronic prescribing went live across all seven Welsh health boards by October 2024. That milestone, presented by DHCW as a significant achievement, meant only that the system was technically available — not that it was being used.

These are not contested figures. They were provided by DHCW's own leadership to the Senedd. [Source: DHCW Public Accountability Meeting, January 2026]

By May 2025, adoption had reached approximately 50% of community pharmacies and 15--20% of GP practices. Full rollout is targeted for November 2026 — over a decade after England achieved universal coverage.

Why Electronic Prescribing Matters to Patients

Digital prescribing is not an administrative convenience. It is a patient safety intervention.

Transcription errors. When prescriptions are handwritten, pharmacists must interpret handwriting. Misread dosages, confused drug names, and illegible instructions are a documented source of dispensing errors. Electronic prescriptions eliminate this category of risk entirely. [Source: NHS England, Electronic Prescription Service evaluation data]

Dispensing delays. Paper prescriptions require patients to collect a physical document from their GP, carry it to a pharmacy, and wait while it is processed. Electronic prescriptions are transmitted instantly. For elderly patients, those with mobility difficulties, or those managing multiple medications, the difference is significant.

Medication management. Electronic prescriptions create a digital record that allows GPs and pharmacists to see a patient's full prescription history and identify dangerous interactions. Paper prescriptions provide no such safety net. When a patient visits an unfamiliar pharmacy or an out-of-hours service, there is no record of what else they have been prescribed.

Repeat prescriptions. Electronic systems enable patients to request repeat prescriptions without visiting their GP surgery in person. For patients on long-term medication — particularly the elderly and those with chronic conditions — this removes a recurring burden that paper systems impose.

These are not theoretical benefits. They are documented, evidence-based improvements to patient care that have been demonstrated across every health system that has adopted electronic prescribing.

What 7% Means in Practice

At 7% GP adoption in January 2025 — more than a decade after England achieved universal coverage — the vast majority of Welsh patients were relying on paper prescriptions.

That means: a GP writes a prescription by hand. The patient takes the paper to a pharmacy. The pharmacist reads the handwriting, dispenses the medication, and records it manually. If there is an error in transcription, there is no digital safety net to catch it. If the patient visits a different pharmacy, there is no electronic record of what they have been prescribed elsewhere.

Every month of continued paper prescribing is a month in which avoidable errors occur, patients wait longer than necessary, and medication management is less safe than it should be.

Ask your GP whether your prescriptions are electronic. If they are not, ask why.

The Cost of a Decade's Delay

There is a temptation to treat this gap as embarrassing but ultimately recoverable. Given enough time, the argument goes, Wales will catch up.

This misunderstands the nature of the problem. While DHCW spent years failing to deliver a capability England completed a decade ago, England moved on. The NHS App in England integrates prescriptions, appointments, health records, and GP services into a single platform used by millions. The debate in England is about what comes next — AI-assisted prescribing, pharmacogenomic integration, automated drug interaction alerts.

Wales is not catching up. Wales is implementing 2014 technology in 2026. By the time DHCW achieves full rollout in November 2026 — if it meets its own target, which its track record gives no confidence it will — the gap will have widened, not narrowed.

The cost is not just measured in money, though the cost of the EPS programme remains undisclosed by DHCW. The deeper cost is measured in patient safety — in the transcription errors that did not need to happen, the dispensing delays that did not need to occur, and the medication interactions that were not caught because the digital record did not exist.

The Question for the Senedd

Every month that Welsh patients rely on handwritten prescriptions is a month of avoidable error. England eliminated this risk over a decade ago. Scotland eliminated it years ago. Wales, under DHCW's leadership, is at 7%.

The question for the Senedd is not whether DHCW can close the gap. It is whether anyone will hold the leadership to account for creating it.

Right of Reply: CareNHS welcomes a response from DHCW to the matters raised in this article. No response has been received to date. Contact: carenhs@carenhs.org

Sources: Senedd Health and Social Care Committee evidence session (January 2025); DHCW Public Accountability Meeting (January 2026); NHS England Electronic Prescription Service data; Welsh Government escalation records (March 2025). A full source index is available on request.

carenhs.org is an independent public accountability campaign focused on NHS Wales digital infrastructure. We welcome corrections and responses from DHCW, the Welsh Government, and any individual named in this article. Contact: info@carenhs.org

Related pages:

• Nine Programmes, Zero Results — the full programme failure analysis
• Patient Safety — The Evidence — how digital failures harm patients
• No Plan B — why there is no alternative to DHCW
• Benchmarking Reform — how to measure Wales against comparable nations