What is Signature Rx?
SignatureRx (often written Signature Rx, and shortened to SRx) is a private electronic prescribing service for UK clinicians. Instead of printing, signing and posting a paper private prescription, you create the prescription online and sign it with an advanced electronic signature. The patient can then take it to any pharmacy in the UK, or have it delivered.
It is run by Signature Healthcare Services Limited, which also owns Signature Pharmacy, an online pharmacy registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). The two are linked but separate: SignatureRx is the prescribing platform, and Signature Pharmacy is one pharmacy that can dispense and deliver SRx prescriptions.
It is not part of the NHS Electronic Prescription Service (EPS), which carries NHS prescriptions only. It relies on regulation 219 of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012, which allows a prescription to be created electronically, signed with an advanced electronic signature and sent to the dispenser electronically.
How Signature Rx prescribing works
- Register once. Identity is checked using your smartphone and a passport or driving licence.
- Write the prescription. Log in with two-factor authentication, add a new patient or find an existing one, and create the prescription. It is signed electronically.
- The patient gets an SRx prescription ID. It arrives by email or text message and starts with “SRX”. The message tells the patient to show the ID to their pharmacist, or to arrange delivery instead.
- The pharmacy retrieves it. The pharmacy enters the prescription ID and the patient’s date of birth on the SignatureRx dispensing portal, along with its own name and address. It sees the patient, prescriber and clinic details, the medicines, any notes and the signature details.
- The pharmacy marks it dispensed. Once marked, no other pharmacy can dispense it. You are notified of the dispensing status, so you can see whether and where it was collected.
You can void a prescription, and a voided prescription shows as not available to dispense. If a pharmacy cannot supply it, for example because of a stock or pricing issue, it can record “Did Not Dispense” with a reason, and the patient can take the same ID to another pharmacy.
Collection and delivery: Signature Pharmacy
Patients have two routes:
- Any UK pharmacy. SignatureRx says its prescriptions are valid across the UK, including in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, without a paper copy. The pharmacy charges the patient for the medicine and its usual dispensing fee, as it would for a paper private prescription.
- Delivery from Signature Pharmacy. The patient pays online and the medicine is posted by tracked delivery. Signature Pharmacy advertises free next-day delivery nationwide, seven days a week, and same-day delivery to selected London postcodes.
The patient email from SignatureRx reminds patients that a private prescription may cost more or less than an NHS prescription charge. It is worth saying this in the consultation too.
Who uses Signature Rx
SignatureRx is aimed at clinicians and telemedicine providers who issue private prescriptions. In private general practice it suits:
- GPs who consult by video or phone, where posting a paper prescription adds days.
- Practices whose patients live far away or travel, since any UK pharmacy can dispense.
- Practices that want an audit trail showing whether, when and where each prescription was dispensed.
Integrations with clinical systems
You can use SignatureRx on its own through its web app, but then you write the prescription in SignatureRx and record it again in your clinical notes. Several record systems instead send prescriptions through it:
- Cliniko lists SignatureRx as a connected app for UK e-prescribing.
- Hero Health lets private GPs using EMIS Web send EMIS-issued medication electronically via SignatureRx.
- Jump EHR sends private prescriptions through SignatureRx from its prescribing, which is checked against the NHS Dictionary of Medicines and Devices (dm+d).
- Meddbase lists Signature Pharmacy and SignatureRx as its prescriptions integration, including patient pick-up.
Ask your supplier how the integration works in practice: whether the prescription is written once, how it is recorded in the notes, and whether dispensing status comes back into the record.
How much does Signature Rx cost?
SignatureRx charges prescribers per prescription. A prescription token costs £1 + VAT, and tokens can be bought one at a time or in bulk (at the time of review). The prescriber page does not mention a subscription.
Pharmacies pay nothing to SignatureRx. The patient pays the pharmacy for the medicine and dispensing, or pays Signature Pharmacy online if they choose delivery. If you use SignatureRx through a clinical system, check whether the system adds its own charge.
Controlled drugs and other limits
SignatureRx states that its prescriptions are not valid for medicines subject to special prescription requirements, including Schedule 2 and Schedule 3 controlled drugs. This follows from the law: regulation 219 requires an electronic prescription for a Schedule 2 or 3 controlled drug to go through the NHS Electronic Prescription Service, which does not carry private prescriptions.
For private Schedule 2 and 3 prescriptions dispensed in the community in England, you still need the FP10PCD form and a private prescriber identification number, which you get through NHS England. The NHS Business Services Authority strongly recommends no more than 30 days’ supply of Schedule 2, 3 and 4 controlled drugs. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own arrangements, so check locally.
Plan for downtime too. SignatureRx’s pharmacy procedure says that if a prescription cannot be accessed, for example during a system failure, the prescriber should issue a replacement ink-signed private prescription and get the original to the pharmacy within 72 hours.
Is Signature Rx regulated?
The pharmacy side is on the GPhC register:
- Signature Pharmacy, owned by Signature Healthcare Services Limited, is a registered pharmacy (GPhC registration 9012267) at Unit 9, Concord Business Centre, Concord Road, London W3 0TJ. The register shows no notices, conditions or enforcement history at the time of review.
- Its most recent published GPhC inspection, on 12 June 2024, found all five standards met. The report describes it as an internet-only pharmacy that mainly handles private prescriptions.
- Its superintendent pharmacist, Reece Samani, is on the GPhC register (2211395).
SignatureRx itself is the prescribing software. Responsibility for each prescription stays with you as the prescriber, and with your practice’s registration with the CQC in England, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, Healthcare Improvement Scotland or RQIA in Northern Ireland. Include e-prescribing in your prescribing policy and records. See our private prescribing workflow and governance checklist.
Signature Rx alternatives
Other private e-prescribing routes work differently, mainly in who dispenses and who pays:
- SmartRx is free for prescribers. Prescriptions go to its own pharmacy team (SmartRx Pharmacy, formerly Smartway Pharmacy) for dispensing and delivery to the patient.
- Healistic is free for clinics. It fulfils prescriptions through partner pharmacies, with collection from a pharmacy of the patient’s choice or delivery for a flat £3.50 fee, and integrates with Semble. It says its platform supports Schedules 2–5 controlled drugs, so ask how Schedule 2 and 3 prescriptions are handled.
- Healthcode ePractice includes free prescribing in its practice management software. The patient pays online and Pharmacy2U dispenses and delivers.
- Paper private prescriptions remain valid and are still needed for Schedule 2 and 3 controlled drugs. See the best way of sending prescriptions to private patients.
The main difference is choice of pharmacy. SignatureRx lets the patient use any UK pharmacy or opt for delivery, while some alternatives route every prescription to one pharmacy or a partner network.
Things to check before you start
- Does it connect to your clinical system, or will you write each prescription twice?
- How will each prescription, and its dispensing status, be recorded in the patient’s notes?
- How will you handle controlled drugs, and what is your plan if the service is down?
- Will your patients’ local pharmacies know how to use the dispensing portal? Pointing them to the SignatureRx pharmacy guide helps.
- Have you told patients what the medicine is likely to cost, and how to choose delivery?
For why private GPs cannot use NHS EPS, see can I use the NHS Electronic Prescription Service as a private GP?
