Powys Teaching Health Board has launched Better Meds, marking the system’s second live deployment in Wales and the start of a phased rollout.
The electronic prescribing and medicines administration system, known as ePMA, will be introduced across the health board’s secondary care services.
The implementation follows the rollout of Better Meds at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.
It also forms part of the national Digital Medicines programme led by Digital Health and Care Wales.
Powys has become the first health board in Wales to begin both reading medicines information on hospital admission and writing discharge medicines to the Shared Medicines Record.
The Shared Medicines Record is a consolidated record of medicines, allergies and intolerances for every patient in Wales.
Connecting it with the prescribing system means clinicians can view a patient’s current medicines and allergies when they are admitted.
Any changes made during treatment or at discharge can then be written back to the same record.
This is intended to provide accurate and up-to-date information wherever a patient receives care, supporting safer treatment, continuity of care and a lower risk of errors when people move between services.
The initial launch took place at Bronllys Hospital, where inpatient ward staff moved from paper drug charts to electronic prescribing and medicines administration.
It is the first phase of a wider implementation programme across Powys community hospitals and inpatient services.
Powys Teaching Health Board provides community and specialist services across a predominantly rural county covering around a quarter of the land mass of Wales.
Care is delivered through nine community hospital sites spread across large distances, creating challenges involving accessibility, medicines management, workforce distribution, infrastructure and cross-border care.
Better Meds and its connection with the Shared Medicines Record are intended to support safer and more efficient medicines management.
Replacing paper processes is expected to improve access to patient information, reduce the risk of medication errors and give staff more time for direct patient care.
The programme is also expected to improve auditability, provide greater access to patient-level data and support more connected care across the health board.
The first phase will focus on inpatient wards across Powys community hospitals throughout 2026.
Later phases are expected to extend the system to outpatient services, theatres and maternity care from 2026 onwards.
Kate Wright, director of medical services and senior responsible owner at Powys Teaching Health Board, said: “This is a very exciting and important development for the Health Board. Not only will it help to improve the safety of clinical services, but it will help staff deliver medicines more efficiently. My thanks to support from staff who have worked tirelessly to implement the system and I look forward to seeing its use grow as it is implemented across the Health Board.”
Michelle Sweet, ward manager at Powys Teaching Health Board, said: “The introduction of ePMA has been a big change for the team, and it’s taken a bit of getting used to, particularly in the first few days. Any shift away from something familiar is always going to take some adjustment, but overall, it has settled in well. One of the biggest differences is simply not having to go looking for drug charts anymore. Everything is there when you need it, it’s clear and readable, and that has made a noticeable difference to how smoothly things run.
“The system is user-friendly, and there’s definitely a learning curve, but it’s not as daunting as some initially thought it might be. You can see confidence building day by day as staff get more familiar with it.”
Stefan Siekierski, delivery director at Better, said: “We’re proud to support Powys Teaching Health Board on this important stage of its digital transformation journey. Delivering ePMA across a health board as geographically dispersed and operationally unique as Powys is a significant achievement and reflects the strength of collaboration between Powys, Better, and partners across NHS Wales.
“This go-live not only marks our second live deployment in Wales, but also another step forward in the wider national ambition to modernise medicines management through connected digital systems.”
Dr Lesley Hewer, chair of the national ePMA programme at Digital Health and Care Wales, said: “It was great to see first-hand the implementation of the ePMA system at the Llewelyn ward in Bronllys Community Hospital. I was impressed with how the staff took it in their stride; with the extensive amount of time, effort and preparation the team had done being evidently worthwhile.
“Powys is such a vast geographical area with some staff attending the clinical environment 2-3 times a week, so by proving remote access capabilities with the new system, it is clear to see the time saving benefits this new system will provide.
“It is exciting to see the SMR read and write functionality starting to be used within PTHB. You can see the potential for this in Wales as being a gamechanger; the jewel in the secondary care e-PMA implementation.”
The implementation was delivered by clinical, pharmacy, informatics, operational and digital teams from Better and Powys Teaching Health Board.
The organisations worked across remote and varied care settings while managing the challenges of rural healthcare delivery, inconsistent connectivity at some sites, significant reliance on cross-border services and geographically dispersed hospitals.
The Powys launch strengthens Better’s presence in Wales and reflects growing momentum behind digital medicines management across NHS Wales.
Better now supports multiple Welsh health boards as part of the national effort to modernise prescribing and medicines administration through safer, connected digital systems.
