Source · HSSIB Patient Safety Investigation
Online prescribing: challenges and opportunities to improve patient safety
HSSIB’s introductionThis investigation looks at the complex regulatory landscape around independent online prescribing and challenges sharing patient information between the NHS and independent online prescribing services.
Published 25 June 2026
Published
Medication
Indexed content
3 recommendations
2 observations
Safety Recommendations
HSSIB recommends that the Department of Health and Social Care develops a policy and implements a mechanism to enable appropriate NHS patient information to be shared with independent prescribing organisations. This is to ensure independent prescribing organisations can access verified patient information, with patients’ consent, to inform prescribing decisions.
No response is indexed for this recommendation.
HSSIB recommends that the Department of Health and Social Care undertakes a review to explore the options and determine an appropriate mechanism for write access to health records for independent prescribing organisations. This would inform future developments such as the Single Patient Record, improve the currency of patient information held digitally by NHS organisations, and may remove some burden from general practices.
No response is indexed for this recommendation.
HSSIB recommends that the Department of Health and Social Care works with relevant organisations, including Digital Clinical Excellence and the Coalition for Responsible Digital Health, to develop a framework to enable the sharing of safety critical information relating to patients known to multiple independent prescribing organisations. This would create a cross-organisational safeguard for patients who may be at risk of harm, and supporting safe prescribing.
No response is indexed for this recommendation.
Safety Observations
Independent prescribing organisations can improve patient safety by ensuring that patient information contained in the NHS App is not used as a sole source of verification when making clinical decisions, as this is outside the purpose of the App and can result in patient safety risks.
National healthcare organisations and independent prescribing organisations can improve patient safety by working together to design mechanisms for receiving information held by independent prescribing organisations. Such data may help to inform NHS care and provide insights into the safety profile of medications predominantly prescribed in the private sector.