What's New?

Pharmacy Manager Release 17.3

Summary of Changes

Pharmacy Manager release 17.3 introduces the following features and improvements:

All Countries

  • Owings Enhancements - We have made the following improvements to the Owings screen:

    • You can now filter the Owings screen by patient or product name.

    See Owings Overview Screen for details.
    • Bulk Collect Prepared Owings (When Prescription is Collected) - To help save time on administrative tasks, we have added a new Remove prepared owings feature. Now, you can quickly clear multiple owings at once, providing the associated prescriptions have already been collected.

      This feature automatically marks eligible owings as collected and removes them from the Owings screen, ensuring only active entries display.

    What this means for you:

    • Filter owings by patient or product name - find and manage owings faster than ever.

    • Clear multiple owings in seconds - only those with collected prescriptions are processed with no manual follow-up.

England Only

  • Accuracy Check - We have made the following improvements to the Accuracy Check module:

    • Medication Expiry Warnings - When performing an accuracy check, Pharmacy Manager now alerts you if a medication is nearing or has exceeded its expiry date:

      • Item Expiring Soon - If the expiry date of the medication is in the current or next month.

      • Item Expired - If the medication's expiry date has already passed.

      What this means for you:

      By alerting you to expiring or expired medications, this helps you ensure that only valid medications are dispensed to your patients.

    • Record Batch Number and Expiry Date During Accuracy Check - When scanning a medication using its GTIN (Global Trade Item Number)barcode, Pharmacy Manager now automatically saves the batch number and expiry date. This information is retrieved from the barcode and stored in the patient’s history for better traceability and compliance. You can view this data in Patient Details - History - Item Details - Items Dispensed - Details, under each dispensed item.

    • Filter by Batch Number in Dispensed Item Report - You can now filter the Dispensed Item Report by batch number, enabling quick identification of patients who received a specific medication batch - critical in the event of a drug recall.

      See Dispensed Item Report for details.
    • Clear Quantity When Editing Prescriptions - To prevent errors, the Quantity field is now cleared when editing a prescription and changing the dispensed or written item. This ensures you re-enter the correct quantity for the new item - especially important if the new item has different dispensing rules or quantities. The setting is found under Pharmacy Details - EPS - General as Remove QTY when editing (off by default). It applies to all prescription types: EPS (R1/R2), private, and manual.

      See Pharmacy Details - EPS for details.
    • Restrict Pipcodes and Barcodes: Enhanced Control for Group Admins - New security controls in Pharmacy Details - Setup - General help prevent incorrect data entry and reduce ordering and accuracy checking errors. When enabled, users must enter an Admin Key to update supplier pipcodes or add product barcodes, ensuring these changes are made only by authorised users.

England and Wales

  • Auto-populate Mobile Numbers From Electronic Prescriptions - When dispensing an EPS prescription - whether fast-labelled or not - Pharmacy Manager now helps you capture mobile numbers automatically:

    • Fast-labelled prescriptions: The system automatically fills in the patient’s mobile number (if available in the prescription data), reducing manual entry and errors.

      See Fast Labelling for details.
    • Non-fast-labelled prescriptions: Use the Patient Selection Wizard to add or confirm a mobile number during dispensing - no extra steps needed.

    This feature is enabled by default when SMS is activated at your pharmacy. If required, you can adjust the setting in Tools > System Settings > Pharmacy Details > EPS > General.

    See Pharmacy Details - EPS for details.

    What this means for you:
    More complete contact details mean more patients receive SMS notifications when their prescription is ready to collect or deliver.

    See CRx Chat for details.
  • Improved PDS Sync - Pharmacy Manager now includes patient mobile numbers in the synchronisation with the Personal Demographics Service (PDS).

    What this means for you:

    This feature keeps patient records up-to-date and accurate, ensuring mobile numbers are current and populated where missing - essential for sending prescription collection SMS notifications.

    See CRx Chat for details.

Integrated Functionality

Online Doctor - When a mobile number is present on a patient's record, it now prints on Online Doctor prescriptions, enabling quick and easy contact without needing to access the patient’s record in Pharmacy Manager.

Beta Features - England and Wales

Beta features are released early for testing by a small number of users to gather feedback and improve them before a full rollout. You’ll be notified when a beta feature becomes available to you.

  • EPS Nominated Pharmacy - A new Automated Nomination Check option displays a patient's nomination status on the Dispensary screen when dispensing EPS prescriptions. With the patient’s consent, you can instantly update their nominated pharmacy in one click - if it’s not already set to your pharmacy.

    The following statuses are:

    • Nominate Me - When the patient is not currently nominated to your pharmacy. Select Nominate Me to update the patient's nominated pharmacy to your pharmacy.

      Important - You must check that the patient is happy to select your pharmacy as their nominated pharmacy for electronic prescriptions.
    • Nominated - If the patient is already nominated at your pharmacy to receive their electronic prescriptions.

    • Nomination Unknown - If the patient's current pharmacy nomination is not known, or there is a problem retrieving the details.

    Important - User must be logged in with a smartcard configured with permissions to update EPS nominations.

    The Automated Nomination Check setting is enabled by default in Pharmacy Details - EPS - General.

Beta Features - Golden Tote

Beta features are released early for testing by a small number of users to gather feedback and improve them before a full rollout. You’ll be notified when a beta feature becomes available to you.

  • Accuracy Checker Role for Golden Tote Approval - A new Accuracy Checker role is now available in Pharmacy Manager. Users with this role can now perform the final approval for Golden Tote orders, moving them to the External - Ready to Send screen. They cannot edit the clinically checked prescription items or directions - these actions remain exclusive to Pharmacists. The role matches the Dispenser role and permissions in all other areas.

    What this means for you:

    Users with the Accuracy Checker role can now validate Golden Tote orders to send, without editing any clinical details. This enables trained non-pharmacists to validate orders safely, improving workflow efficiency while maintaining critical oversight and compliance.

    See Adding a User and Golden Tote Accuracy Check for details.
  • Automatic Bag Splitting for Fridge and CD Items - For sites using CRx Scan (Formerly Handout Manager) and Golden Tote, Pharmacy Manager now automatically separates fridge items and controlled drugs into dedicated bags labelled FRIDGE and CD respectively - when completing the final basket check on fully Golden Tote prescriptions.

    Note - Reprints from the Patient Ready and Uncollected Bags screens also reflect the correct bag categories.

    What this means for you:

    Fridge and CD items are now automatically bagged separately during handout, reducing manual sorting and helping ensure correct storage and handling at the point of collection.

Beta Features - Hub & Spoke

  • Split Packs in Hub & Spoke - You can now send split packs to the hub as part of the Hub and Spoke workflow. This update introduces new configuration options to support split pack handling, ensuring they are correctly suggested, processed, and transmitted.

Previous Releases