A SERIES of pilot schemes that will allow prescriptions to be transferred electronically from doctor to pharmacist are being closely monitored by staff at QinetiQ, Malvern.

QinetiQ is evaluating the system architecture and security aspects of the Electronic Transmission of Prescription pilot studies that are being undertaken by the Department of Health.

The six months of testing on different types of transferral process, from three different companies, are halfway through at various locations around the UK. Patients partaking in the scheme are given normal paper prescriptions by their doctor, but the order for their medication is also sent directly to the pharmacy electronically.

Around 600 million prescriptions are processed every year, and the Government hopes that half of those will be electronically transferred by 2005.

Mike O'Farrell, principal consultant at QinetiQ, said that the tests so far had gone fairly smoothly.

"QinetiQ's role is to look at the technical aspect of the pilots, what sort of computer's they're using, whether you can run it on an old BBC or do you need next year's Pentium processor," he said. "Some models have transmitted more prescriptions than others, but they (the companies) are confident that they will get numbers up to reasonable levels."