Welsh patients warned of ‘backlog’ following widespread network failures

A widespread network failure at two NHS data centres in Wales has now been resolved but there have been warnings that some areas may experience a “backlog”.

Wales’ Department of Health and Social Services tweeted around 3pm yesterday to confirm there was a “technical issue affecting two NHS Wales Data Centres”. The NHS Wales Informatics Service has since confirmed that all IT systems are back up and it is now launching an investigation into the incident.

Meanwhile they are warning patients that they may experience a “backlog”. (see full tweets below)

The Aneurin Bevan University Hospital Board (ABUHB) and Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) both confirmed on social media that they had been affected.

The National Cyber Security Centre confirmed to Digital Health News that it was “not a cyber attack” but a “technical glitch”.

Dr David Bailey, Chair BMA’s Welsh Council, said: “BMA Cymru Wales has heard reports from some members that they are experiencing issues affecting emails, the internet and other systems, in both primary and secondary care.

“This will no doubt cause a major disruption to the NHS, at a time when demand is already unprecedented.”

One GP told the BBC that the situation was “chaos” and said: “I can’t do anything. I need this system for everything.”

The system failure meant staff could not get phone numbers of patients to contact them so as to cancel appointments.

Other problems included the fact notes from appointments could not be typed up and saved.”

It was not just Wales which experienced problems as there was reports of operations and appointments being cancelled in Manchester following an IT failure.

Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust has confirmed it experienced a network outage yesterday which lasted around four hours with patients asked only to attend A&E for serious or life-threatening conditions.

The trust later confirmed all systems were back up and running.

https://twitter.com/DHSSwales/status/956213481132478464

https://twitter.com/DHSSwales/status/956213513759920130

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience during the issues affecting national IT systems earlier today, and thank you to NWIS colleagues for prompt action to resolve this. https://t.co/qxYs6dR64K

— Powys Teaching Health Board (@PTHBhealth) January 24, 2018

2/2 Thank you to our staff for responding so quickly and keeping our services running and apologies for any inconvenience that this may have caused to our patients.

— Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (@AneurinBevanUHB) January 24, 2018