Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:42 pm on 29 September 2021.
Thank you very much. I can confirm that this is one of the 10 priorities that I have listed for my team, in order to ensure that they understand the importance that I attach to this issue. I do agree that we are a long way behind on this. It was a shock to me to see how far behind we are in terms of e-prescribing. I do think that this is very technical work and it is work where you need to have consent to obtain data, and we are seeing at the moment whether it is possible for us to proceed without legislation, because we have to be sure about who owns the information that is owned by GPs very often—so, how are they going to get patients' consent to ensure that the systems all speak to each other.
I do understand that we do need to move more quickly. I think it will save a lot of time, particularly for GPs, for pharmacies. We can improve the system, and it will save us money in terms of overprescribing, and it will ensure that we can ensure—if you give this prescription, something will automatically pop up, saying that you shouldn't give that prescription, because they will counteract each other. That's quite a complicated programme, and that's why it's taking a long time. But I can assure you that I'm on the case with this, and I'm ensuring that we are going to proceed in this area, as quickly as possible.