AQW 18458/22-27

Mrs Michelle Guy
Alliance Party
Lagan Valley

Tabled Date: 19/11/2024
Answered On Date: 04/12/2024
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health to detail any plans to remedy the new IT system to ensure that medication does not drop off a patient's prescription if it is not renewed within a five day period.

Answer:

The encompass pharmacy team have worked with the Antimicrobial Stewardship Team from across the region to agree how the encompass clinical decision support tool is configured. As recommended, the encompass system includes a default duration of five days for all antimicrobials. The prescribing clinician can change this duration at the point of prescribing and any prescribed order can be modified at any time. A number of prompts has been built into the system to support clinicians to actively manage orders for antimicrobials within the first five days of treatment after 48, 72 and 96 hours.