NHS staff lose N3 internet access
- 13 January 2015
Internet access through the NHS National Network, the secure broadband network for the NHS in England, was unavailable to many health service staff for several hours today in a major failure.
NHS users started reporting problems with the service mid-morning which continued until early afternoon. EHI News understands the latest disruption to N3 follows a major disruption of the service in 16 October.
The Health and Social Care Information Centre, which is responsible for the managing the N3 contract, a service provided by BT, confirmed that internet access to NHS staff had been disrupted.
An HSCIC spokesperson said: “Earlier today there was an issue with the N3 internet gateway, causing some users to experience problems when accessing external websites.
"The remainder of the N3 network and the clinical systems running over it were unaffected by this incident and service has now resumed.
“The issue was a dealt with as a matter of urgency. All health organisations who subscribe to email and SMS incident updates were communicated to regarding the incident. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
N3 links hospitals, medical centres and GPs in England and Scotland. The network connects over 1.3 million NHS staff and supports both the Electronic Transmission of Prescriptions and the NHS Care Records Service. It also provides NHS staff with their access to the internet.
The N3 contract was awarded to BT in 2004, and had been due to expire in 2010. The Department of Health extended the deal for two years, and started a consultation on replacing it.
Further extensions have been agreed since, but the latest information on the N3 contract update website says that “discussions are underway to continue the N3 service beyond March 2014” and to align it with the wider Public Service Network.
There are no further updates, and the future of N3 appears to be uncertain; although the N3 site says that “as and when plans are developed and agreed to begin closing down the system, adequate notice will be provided.”
