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National Patient Prescription Tracking Service

The National Patient Prescription Tracking Service lets patients track their prescriptions online.

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What we’re doing and why

The national prescription tracking service for patients is a new part of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS). It gives patients consistent, real-time information about their prescriptions through the NHS App from when a prescription is requested to when it’s ready to collect or ready for delivery.

Research with patients showed that people lack reliable information about where their prescription is in the process, leading to large numbers of avoidable calls to GP surgeries and pharmacies. With more than 30 million repeat prescriptions ordered through the NHS App every year, improving visibility of the prescription journey helps patients take a more active role in their healthcare while easing pressure on frontline services.  

The service aims to: 

  • give patients visibility of the prescription journey through the NHS App

  • help people manage their prescriptions more easily using digital services

  • reduce calls and visits for prescription updates

  • free up clinical time for patient care

Watch the National Patient Prescription Tracking Service video 

Read the video transcript

Welcome to the National Patient Prescription Tracking Service.

This new NHS service is transforming the way prescriptions are managed, making life easier for both patients and pharmacy teams.

Let's dive in.

The National Patient Prescription Tracking Service connects patients, pharmacies and the NHS App, ensuring everyone has access to up to date prescription information.

For patients, this means transparency and convenience.

They can check their prescription item status directly on the NHS App, with no need to call the pharmacy or visit unnecessarily.

This gives them peace of mind and more control over their healthcare journey.

For pharmacies, it's all about efficiency and better communication. By using your dispensing IT system, everyday actions you take, for example downloading the prescription or marking an item as ready for collection or delivery, automatically updates the patient's NHS App.

This reduces enquiries and lets you focus on what matters most, delivering exceptional care.

It's quick, easy and keeps everyone informed.

Whether you're preparing a new prescription or updating the status of a repeat order, you're playing a vital role in keeping the system running smoothly.

Contact your dispensing IT system provider for detailed information about the actions in your system which result in an update on the NHS App.

Together we're building a more connected NHS, so thank you for being part of this positive change.

Your actions make a difference.

How it works

When a patient views their prescription in the NHS App, the app calls the National Patient Prescription Tracking Service to get and display the current status of their prescription.

NHS England is responsible for both the National Patient Prescription Tracking Service and the NHS App.

 

By working with our EPS assured dispensing supplier partners, the service joins up prescription information for patients across England. Where possible, our design reuses functionality that suppliers already have, creating a consistent national digital experience at a national scale.

The service is enabled by pharmacy systems pushing a minimal set of required information to a new NHS England endpoint. For most dispensing suppliers this will be data already available in their local system. Visit the Prescription Status Update API page for more information.

This information is pushed to a new NHS England data store. The service is triggered when an NHS App user views their prescription information in the NHS App through the Prescriptions for Patients API.

What's ready to use now

Patients can use the NHS App to view prescription details, order repeat prescriptions, and generate a barcode for medication collection. The NHS App also shows patients the items prescribed, the prescription type, and the name of the prescribing professional.

Prescriptions tracking in the NHS App launched in September 2024, with 4 pharmacy IT system suppliers (Apotec, Boots, Cegedim, and Invatech). The service is now rolling out to all pharmacy sites that use these IT systems.

Patients can see the status of their prescription at both prescription level and individual item level, for example, whether each medication is being prepared, ready to collect, or has been dispatched for delivery.

Patients with NHS App notifications enabled will receive a push notification when their prescription is ready to collect or part ready to collect. This feature is currently rolling out to pharmacy sites already live with prescription tracking.

Information for dispensing suppliers

All dispensing suppliers will need to onboard to this service to ensure national coverage of the prescription tracking for patients.

The service is designed to work with existing workflows and is set up and managed through your suppliers’ PMR systems.

Some useful links for dispensing suppliers not onboarded to this service yet:

Please contact [email protected] to receive an onboarding pack.

Information for third party patient facing apps

The service is currently available in the NHS App. In the future, we intend to make the Prescriptions for Patients FHIR API available for third parties to implement the service too.

Roadmap

The service is live with the following pharmacy IT system suppliers:

  • Apotec 
  • Boots 
  • Cegedim 
  • Invatech
  • Optum
  • Positive Solutions

To increase national coverage of the service are working with the next set of suppliers to onboard, starting with Clanwilliam. 

Contact us

If you have any feedback about the National Prescription Tracking Service or need support, contact [email protected].

Last edited: 8 May 2026 2:52 pm