Public hospitals go back to paper for pharmacy prescriptions after IT system fails

SOME WA public hospitals have been forced to go back to pen and paper for pharmacy prescriptions after a major IT outage hit the WA Health Department.

WA Health’s chief health officer Andy Robertson told Gareth Parker’s Mornings show on Radio 6PR that the outage had forced the department to return to a back-up data centre, which struggled to handle the load placed upon it.

“Our web-based IT programs had a malfunction and that was a result of the patch upgrade to some of the switches in our data centre,” Dr Robertson said.

“They went to rectify that and we then had to move across to our back-up data centre...the problem with the back-up data centre is that it’s not handling the load.

“There will be some delays to our normal procedures, prescriptions may take a bit longer to be provided but we’re continuing to provide the services we normally would.

“The downtime procedures will depend a bit on the area but some of it will be going back to paper records as required and some of it will be writing scripts on paper.

“But a lot of the systems are still working.”

While radiology is another area being impacted, Dr Robertson said all patients were being encouraged to keep their appointments.

Dr Robertson said the department continued to work with the vendor, Fujitsu, towards a permanent solution - which he hoped would come before the end of the weekend.

“We’re meeting again later this morning. They have been working overnight to come up with a plan for the next 24 to 36 hours to have it fully functional...hopefully it will be before then,” he said.

“By all accounts the hospitals seem to be handling it well, they are very good with these downtime procedures.

“We’re confident this issue is being addressed now and that the final solution we come up with will be a permanent solution.”