The days of trying to decipher illegible doctors’ prescriptions are numbered, with a new system being rolled out soon to ensure patients get a more efficient service when receiving free medicines.

This system will benefit the 142,000 people who use the service of the 221 pharmacies enlisted with the Pharmacy of Your Choice Scheme, according to unit CEO Roseanne Camilleri.

The previous system was weighed down by bureaucracy and paperwork, but there will now be better coordination between the prescribing doctor and the pharmacist, to the patients’ advantage.

“This system is useful because the latest patient history will be available to all and can be updated by both the doctor and the pharmacist,” Ms Camilleri said.

Patients tend to shop around, and even if one doctor has stopped them from taking a particular medicine, they’ll try to get it from another doctor

Ms Camilleri said the new system would also provide a new audit trail of prescriptions and eliminate legibility issues – a common frustration for pharmacists and patients attempting to decipher doctors’ notoriously bad handwriting.

Another advantage is that this system should put an end to the recurrent practice in which a patient continues taking, for example, hypertension medication, even though their doctor has stopped prescribing it.

“Patients tend to shop around, and even if one doctor has stopped them from taking a particular medicine, they’ll try to get it from another doctor – they either hoard it or pass on the medication to relatives or friends,” Ms Camilleri said.

Instead, the new system will bring up the patients’ history to whoever accesses the database. It will also provide a list of what free medical aid the patient is entitled to through the national health service – the chronic conditions normally listed on Schedule V (karta is-safra) and Schedule II (karta r-roża) for those with limited means.

Eventually, the idea is to have a paperless system – in which patients will no longer be handed a prescription.

Ms Camilleri said the system would also give a better picture of what medicines are running low, to ensure the stock is better replenished.

Health Parliamentary Secretary Chris Fearne said the computer-generated prescribing system was initially being rolled out to health centre doctors but would soon be extended to private family doctors.

“Besides permitting doctors to utilise their time more efficiently, this system will increase patient safety by allowing for clearer instructions and minimising prescribing error.”