In the UK, an electronic private prescription is a prescription which meets the General Prescription Requirements and must also contain an Advanced Electronic Signature.
According to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, prescription copies sent by email, or copies of prescriptions that are found in a patient's account do not meet this specification.
General Prescription Requirements
The following particulars are a requirement for a valid electronic private prescription in the UK.
Advanced Signature (learn more about our advanced electronic signature here)
Prescriber's address
The date it was signed
Prescriber's particulars showing the type of prescriber
Patient's name
Patient's address
Age of patient (under 12s only)
Advanced Electronic Signature
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain defines a permissible 'Advanced Electronic Signature' for UK (England, Scotland and Wales) private prescriptions to possess the following characteristics:
Unique to the signatory
Capable of identifying the signatory
Signatory maintains the sole control of the means by which it has been generated
FreeRx® prescriptions created by prescribers using Clynxx meet all these requirements. For further details about our advanced electronic private prescriptions, visit our dedicated page here
For a more detailed description on how the law defines 'electronic prescriptions' read the Regulation 219(5) Human Medicines Regulations 2012