Medicines are one of the most safety-critical parts of care, but the way information is recorded and shared today is often fragmented across systems and care settings. This creates unnecessary risk, duplication and delays for both patients and clinicians.

The Digital Medicines Programme is bringing this together by creating a single, connected medicines pathway across the NHS. The focus is on ensuring that accurate, up-to-date medicines information follows the patient wherever care is delivered, supporting safer decision-making, better flow, and more productive services.

This work directly supports the 10 Year Health Plan by making medicines information digital, connected and usable – so patients have more control, clinicians have better information, and data can be used to improve care. It brings together how medicines are recorded and shared across primary care, hospitals and community pharmacy, reducing fragmentation and reliance on paper.

In practice, this means clinicians no longer need to piece together incomplete or duplicated medicines information, and patients have better visibility and control of their medicines. It also establishes a national medicines data foundation that supports safer care, reduces variation, and enables more effective planning and research.

We are focusing on five areas that together create a safer, more connected medicines system.

1. A single national prescribing and dispensing approach means prescriptions can be created, signed and dispensed digitally across all care settings. This is being delivered through services such as the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS), including its rollout into secondary care, reducing reliance on paper and allowing medicines to move more safely and efficiently through the system. Find out more about the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) and Frontline Productivity.
2. A trusted, consistent view of medicines ensures clinicians and patients can access up-to-date information wherever care is delivered. This is supported through medicines interoperability work and the creation of a Single Patient Record (SPR), helping to bring medicines information together across systems and care settings and reducing the need to piece together records manually. Find out more about medicines interoperability and the Single Patient Record (SPR).
3. Connecting the end-to-end medicines pathway links prescribing, dispensing, administration and supply. This includes the use of EPR systems, barcode scanning and wider closed-loop medicines management approaches, improving safety and reducing gaps between different parts of the pathway. Find out more about closed-loop medicines management.
4. Improving patient access and control enables people to view, order and track their medicines digitally through the NHS App. This supports greater independence, improves experience, and reduces avoidable contact with services. Find out more about the NHS App.
5. A consistent data, standard and terminology foundation underpins how medicines information is recorded and shared across the NHS. This includes national medicines data collections from ePMA systems and the development of medicines interoperability standards, enabling safer clinical decision-making and analysis at scale. Find out more about ePMA data collection.

Taken together, this turns fragmented medicines processes into a single, connected pathway – improving safety, supporting clinicians, and enabling higher-quality, more productive services across the NHS.

Further information

Please visit our Digital Medicines Programme stakeholder forums and further information about our initiatives can be found on our Future NHS collaboration platform (login is required).