Pharmacists back to ‘pen and paper’ as PharmOutcomes works on IT issue

C+D understands that the issue is occurring because the server gets overloaded when too many people try to access the site at once.

A spokesperson for EMIS – PharmOutcomes’ parent company – told C+D yesterday (October 21) that the company had been made aware of a “performance issue” affecting some of its users.

“We have been actively working to resolve this. We apologise for any inconvenience,” they added.

Read more: PharmOutcomes’ owner to be sold to Optum UK under £1.24bn deal

However, it is unclear when the issue will be resolved, C+D understands.

Pharmacists have taken to Twitter to complain about the issue at a time when many are delivering the flu vaccination service and need access to PharmOutcomes to enter vaccine and patient data.

Martin Bennett, superintendent at Wicker Pharmacy in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, said he had to “resort to pen and paper vaccinating at a residential home”.

But the issue was “still almost as bad” when he tried entering the data onto the platform earlier this week (October 19), he said.

Festina Islami, manager of an Asda pharmacy in Luton, Bedfordshire, told C+D that she was also forced to write everything down on paper and transfer the information to PharmOutcomes later.

“It took me a long time, but I stayed behind to make sure all was entered on the same day, to make sure not to create a backlog,” she added.

Meanwhile, another pharmacist said they had to log vaccination data on the site “retrospectively” due to the issue.

EMIS flags fake Outcomes4Health website

Besides the performance issue related to PharmOutcomes, EMIS has recently been made aware of a fake Outcomes4Health website, the spokesperson confirmed to C+D yesterday.

“We have reported the website and are taking action to have it removed,” they added.