Digital Prescribing and Dispensing Pathways Programme

The long-term Digital Prescribing and Dispensing Pathways (DPDP) programme objective is the removal of the paper prescription and replacement with a digital solution in community settings within Scotland. Current legal advice is that for a digitally signed prescription item to be valid, the digital signature must be an advanced electronic signature (AES) and be unique to both the prescriber (the signer) and the prescription item. NHS Scotland has engaged independent advice on how best to provide the AES signature capabilities required by the DPDP programme and have been advised that critical to this is the acquisition of an appropriate PKI infrastructure, for example including signature generation, certificate management and supporting services. This PIN addresses those requirements. NHS Scotland’s Digital Strategy aims to support the requirement for a ‘Once for Scotland’ approach and, wherever appropriate, a preference for cloud-based systems and a SaaS service offering.