A new electronic system providing detailed prescription information in Bronglais Hospital will not be able to continue unless more funding is provided or services to patients are cut, Hywel Dda Health Board has admitted.

The health board had been looking to introduce the Medicines Transcription and Electronic Discharge system at Bronglais to help with cutting errors in prescriptions.

The system, which provides up-to-date medicines information had been introduced, but members of the health board’s Business Planning and Performance Assurance Committee said they were concerned that the “cost outweighed the benefits of implementing MTED”, and that the introduction of the system had not resulted in information that could be used to implement it at other Hywel Dda sites.

The committee also heard that the health board’s executive team had said that considering the cost of the system, it was not a priority for the board.

A health board spokesperson confirmed that, saying that continuing with the MTED system would put too much pressure on the small pharmacy team.

They said: “The system is available and is seen as a very positive quality improvement initiative utilising developing technology and as an interim to electronic prescribing.

“However, there are capacity issues with its implementation as it takes time to record all medications in the system which falls (usually) upon pharmacy staff.

“The team is very small and are unable to take up the increased workload without investment or without a reduction in the current provision of clinical services to our patients.”

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