Digital medicines is helping the NHS use cutting-edge technology and data to make medicines safer, more efficient, and more effective—improving care, safety, and patient experience across the health system.

Building on the visionary commitments in the 10 Year Health Plan for England: fit for the future and aspirations of the Data Saves Lives strategy and Lord Darzi review.

From GP surgeries and hospitals to community pharmacies, the programme plays an integral role in digital transformation and providing patients with better care and outcomes.

Adopting digital technology to replace paper medicine charts and prescriptions provides doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals with the information they need to make important clinical decisions at their fingertips.

Our work provides health organisations with secure access to medicines data for direct care and research. This data helps to improve population health, reduce health inequalities and save lives.

How we are improving medicines in the NHS

We’re working in six key areas to make medicines safer and easier to manage:

1. Electronic Prescription Service (EPS)

Prescriptions are sent directly to a pharmacy of the patient’s choice—no paper needed. Helping to make the shift from analogue to digital, the 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance asks all providers to deploy the Electronic Prescription Service wherever possible

2. NHS App

Patients can manage their medicines easily, including the national prescription tracking service which enables patients to to order repeat prescriptions and track them with just a few clicks.

3. Medicines interoperability

Medicines interoperability allows vital information—like prescriptions, allergies, and medications—to securely move between NHS systems. This helps keep patient records accurate and reduces the risk of medication errors.

4. Closed-loop medicines systems

Improving how medicines are tracked from production all the way to the patient. This helps make the process safer and more efficient, and the data collected allows the NHS to better understand medicine costs and patient outcomes.

5. Hospital medicines data

We collect weekly data from hospitals on medicines prescribed and administered to patients. The data is used for research and analysis that helps improve the safety and effectiveness of medicines.

6. Workforce development

We’re helping pharmacy professionals and clinicians build the skills they need to deliver care in a digital NHS.

Further information about the Digital Medicines Programme can be found on our Future NHS collaboration platform (log in is required).