Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has celebrated the go-live of electronic prescribing and medicines administration at Wrexham Maelor Hospital, and become the first Welsh health board to achieve ePMA integration with the shared medicines record.
The transition to an ePMA provided by Better follows a successful early adopter trial with the Heddfan Unit in December, the board shares. G0-live took place over three days, with clinical teams working to manually transcribe 600 inpatients onto the system prior to introducing ePMA as part of routine care.
Making hospital discharge medicines available in the Shared Medicines Record “marks the beginning of delivering a consolidated record of medicines, allergies and intolerances for every patient in Wales – a major milestone for the national Digital Medicines Programmes”, NHS Wales states.
“The energy, teamwork and commitment shown by teams across the whole weekend was incredible, and it was a privilege to witness and support such a major step forward in safer, more seamless digital care for both patients and staff,” said Ffion Thomas, senior clinical informatician (medications nurse) at Digital Health and Care Wales.
Wider trend: Digital medicines
The Ministry of Defence has awarded a contract worth £8 million to The Phoenix Partnership (Leeds) Ltd for an EHR and medicines management system, following a competition through the Clinical Digital Solutions for the Integrated Health Economy Framework part of the NHS London Procurement Partnership. The contract, which is set to run to 8 December 2033, covers standard primary care functionality such as patient registration, consultations, clinical data capture templates, referrals management, long-term condition management, and prescribing. It also incorporates intermediate care functionality such as waiting list management and care planning, as well as medicines management and dispensing.
University Hospitals of Liverpool Group has shared “significant progress” around digital medicines infrastructure at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, highlighting a large-scale EPMA upgrade, the rollout of EPMA in emergency departments, the deployment of automated drug cabinets, and the implementation of the Philips ICCA EPR in critical care. The digital medicines team’s portfolio includes the EPMA and its web portal, the Careflow pharmacy stock control system, and medicines automation. A visit from the NHS England digital medicines team earlier in 2025 reportedly offered positive feedback, specifically on local data-driven initiatives and the Time Critical Medicines Dashboard.
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust has shared successes from 2024-25 and next steps for digital in medicines management, focusing on digital system upgrades and improving electronic prescribing uptake. In March 2025, the trust upgraded to the latest version of its CareFlow Medicine Management software to facilitate eprescribing and pharmacy stock management. While this move “mitigated several risks associated with electronic prescribing and medicines administration and provided benefits for pharmacy contract management”, teams continue to monitor impact and risks.
