the two main ones being the use of electronic data interchange (EDI) and the internet. Whilst e-commerce is the de rigueur of the day, its use is restricted within the pharmaceutical supply chain in hospital pharmacy, the preferred method of trading still being fax, and only the more technologically
progressive pharmacies having EDI ordering and even fewer utilising EDI invoicing.
Only 40 per cent of hospital pharmacies in the north-west of England use EDI systems