News » England, Pharmacy Owners' News, Rurality » DDA warns NHS App against rural inequity
May 23rd 2025
A new feature in the NHS App will help patients in England to track their prescription status with Amazon-style updates.
The additional functionality, currently available in 1,500 pharmacies, enables patients to log in to see dispensing updates such as “ready to collect” or “dispatched by pharmacy” if they are being delivered.
The EPS add-on service is expected to be made available to nearly 5,000 more pharmacies over the next 12 months – covering 60 per cent of those in England.
Dr Vin Diwakar, clinical transformation director at NHS England, said: “Pharmacists can spend more of their time providing health services and advice to patients rather than updates on the status of their prescriptions.”
The new prescription tracker builds on another app feature which allows people without a nominated pharmacy to use a barcode to collect their prescription. NHS England states that there are an average of 2.1 million views of digital prescription barcodes each month.
It also notes that the number of repeat prescriptions ordered through the app has increased by 40 per cent from 3.9 million in April 2024 to 5.5 million in April 2025.
Until patients using a GP dispensary can access EPS functionality, they will not be able to take advantage of NHS App dispensing functionality, increasing rural exclusion and inequity, the DDA has said.
