Write a reusable request to a GP practice for a new prescription, with every patient detail left blank
When a product cannot be supplied, the pharmacy often has to ask the prescriber to issue a new prescription before it can supply anything else, and the same message gets written many times a week. AI can write the reusable wording once, with the patient and medicine left as blanks you fill in by hand. It must never choose or justify an alternative, and no patient detail should ever be typed into it. The pharmacist decides what to ask for and sends it by your approved secure route.
Steps
- Ask the pharmacist to write down, in their own words, the standard facts a prescriber needs from you: that the product cannot be supplied because of a supply problem, what you are asking them to do, how to reach the pharmacist, and how quickly you would like a reply.
- Decide which channel you use for prescriber requests (for example the secure route your superintendent has approved) and whether you want a short phone script as well as the written template.
- Paste the standard facts into the prompt. Do not paste a patient name, date of birth, NHS number, medicine or strength, or anything about a person.
- Read the template. It must contain only the blanks [PATIENT DETAILS], [MEDICINE AND STRENGTH PRESCRIBED] and [REQUESTED PRODUCT, DECIDED BY THE PHARMACIST], and nothing that explains why the requested product is suitable.
- Save the template in your secure system. For each request the pharmacist fills in the blanks by hand and sends it by the approved route, never by pasting the filled letter back into an AI tool.
The exact prompt
I am a pharmacist or owner at an independent community pharmacy in England. Using ONLY my notes below, write a reusable message template and a short phone script asking a GP practice to consider issuing a new prescription because we cannot supply the product prescribed. You must NOT give clinical advice. Do not name or suggest any medicine, do not say that one product is equivalent to, suitable instead of or safer than another, do not give any reason about the patient's condition, and do not add any detail about a patient. Leave exactly three blanks, in square brackets, for me to fill in by hand: [PATIENT DETAILS], [MEDICINE AND STRENGTH PRESCRIBED] and [REQUESTED PRODUCT, DECIDED BY THE PHARMACIST]. Standard facts, in my words: we cannot supply the prescribed product because of a supply problem; what I am asking the prescriber to do; how to reach the pharmacist; the reply I would like and by when: [text]. Pharmacy name and contact details for the signature: [text]. Produce: (1) a message template of no more than 120 words under a subject line; (2) a phone script of no more than 60 words that uses the same three blanks and nothing else about the patient; (3) a list of anything in my notes that could be read as clinical reasoning, which I must remove or have the pharmacist confirm.
✓ Check before you send
- The template has exactly the three blanks and no medicine name, strength or patient detail.
- No sentence says a product is equivalent, suitable or safe, or gives a reason about a patient.
- The pharmacist, not the tool, decides the requested product each time.
- Requests are sent only through the route your superintendent has approved, not by ordinary email unless that route allows it.
- The filled-in version is never pasted back into an AI tool.
UK notes extra
- This job is for pharmacies in England. Whether and how a pharmacist can supply an alternative without a new prescription depends on the rules and any local arrangements, so check with your superintendent and your integrated care board before relying on any shortcut.
- Any message about a patient is personal data about health. Keep it out of AI tools and send it only by your approved secure route. ICO: guidance on AI and data protection (UK).
- The ICO has advice for small organisations on handling personal data day to day. ICO: advice for small organisations (UK).