Patients at a district medical centre have become the first in the country to benefit from a streamlined prescription service.

The ten-doctor-strong Ling House practice in Keighley has been chosen by the NHS to pilot the system of transmitting prescription details by computer.

The medical centre is being partnered in the project by the adjoining Co-op Pharmacy.

It means patients will not have to return to the GP for a signed repeat prescription.

The details will already be keyed into the computer and forwarded to the pharmacy of their choice.

At present, patients still need a paper print-out whose barcode the pharmacist uses to identify the drugs. But eventually the aim is an end to paper prescriptions.

Pharmacist Andrew Murphy said: "The benefits include the fact we don't have to write out the prescription again and we can make it up as soon as it arrives in the computer."

Dr Gordon Cunliffe said: "This phase of electronic prescription service is aimed at making sure it works effectively."

The scheme is part of the NHS's National Programme for Information Technology to be be rolled out across the UK. It is hoped it will reduce errors and the cost of managing payments.

Prescription details will also be sent electronically to the Prescription Pricing Authority, the organisation that pays the pharmacy for the medication it supplies.

Tim Donahoe, a director for the National Programme, said: "For patients it will eventually provide greater safety, convenience and more choice."

And it it is intended reduce the administration burden on GP practices and pharmacies

More than 649 million prescription items were issued nationwide in 2003-4, growing at a rate of six per cent a year.