Patients at mercy of software

Queensland Health has reverted to manual systems to check the right medication is being doled out to intensive care and other patients. Photo / Thinkstock

Queensland's Health Minister is not aware of any deaths linked to defective software that manages medication for some of the state's most ill patients.

Queensland Health has reverted to manual systems to check the right medication is being doled out to intensive care and other patients after doctors realised there was a major problem. A risk report, produced for the state Government last week, found there was a 60 to 90 per cent likelihood of a patient death within the next month due to the software problems.

The suppliers of the Metavision Intensive Care programme, which is in use at nine of the state's hospitals, have been advised and a software patch aimed at rectifying the problem is due to be installed next week.

Health Minister Lawrence Springborg said the software had recently been installed in nine intensive care units or hospitals, but couldn't say if that was a few weeks or a few months ago.

He said there should always be concern when a problem is identified.

"But I don't believe there's any real risk to any potential Queensland patient out there because it has been identified," he said.

Asked if anyone had died as a result of the software problem, Springborg said: "Not that I'm aware of. If that has been the case, it's not been brought to my attention.

He defended the use of software to help manage medication, saying human error was a significant issue in that area of health care.

The software at the heart of the problem was in use in about 100 hospitals across the world, he said.

Concerns over the software program were identified over the past month by the heads of intensive care units at several hospitals.

"Since implementation, monitoring of patient records by pharmacists has revealed several potentially serious prescription errors specifically caused by the system," says the report, quoted by Fairfax. "While no events have resulted in actual patient harm, they are considered to be near misses with a high potential to recur."

The Labor opposition wants an independent assessment of the situation, saying it's clear medications have continued to be administered when they should have stopped.

"It is clear that there are bugs in this system that could result in catastrophic results for the patient," opposition health spokeswoman Jo-Ann Miller said.

- AAP