NHS England is aiming for half of prescriptions to be delivered electronically by next year, Richard Jefferson, head of programme commissioning at NHSE (pictured), told yesterday's LPC conference in Birmingham.

Mr Jefferson acknowledged the shortcomings of EPS, but said that nobody had come up with any other better solution than to make the existing system work. NHSE was currently working on:

• A contractual framework with PMR suppliers to ensure that they have the same level of resilience as the NHS Spine
• Systems to allow the prescribing and dispensing of electronic prescriptions for controlled drugs
• A digital prescription exemption checking system
• A platform to support dispensing hubs.