More SEF

Back from Tuscany and only now recovering from the shock of returning to work. Tuscany fab. So now I have calmed down and had some time to investigate further it is apparent that this SEF Prescribing Safety problem is a much more complicated issue than it first appears.

First off, it is clear that the intentions are very sound - make our systems' method of drug alerting more in keeping with the requirements of our clinical practice. What is not yet clear is why the impact of this has been so negative.

End result anyway is that we have a system which was usable and reasonable (albeit with some flaws and omissions) with respect to drug decision support and now is dangerous and frankly irritating! I see in England INPS have prepared DLM 261 to deal with the issue, but here we are reliant on SEF approving a fix of some kind before we can move forward. That is OK, provided it is not too delayed. There are a lot of positives in the prescribing safety recommendations, and it would be nice not to lose them.

So I guess in reference to my last rather irritated post it would be fairer to reflect that there is no easy fix here, nor any easy way to apportion blame. This is difficult stuff to do and there are now a lot of people working on it. Let's hope we get something decent out of it in the next few weeks.