Hundreds of NHS patients hit in Glasgow IT failure

Hundreds of hospital appointments, treatments and operations have had to be cancelled for the second day running following a major IT failure at the UK’s largest health board.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has worked around the clock to try and restore the network.

But on Wednesday, in a statement, the board said that 459 outpatient appointments had been postponed, as have 14 planned inpatient procedures, 43 day cases and 48 chemotherapy patients treatments.

However they added that arrangements had been made to maintain the vast majority of chemotherapy sessions.

The clinical and administrative systems, affecting hospitals across the region, failed on Tuesday and despite technicians working through the night they have only been able to re-establish a basic level of IT service.

Computer says ‘No’

Robert Calderwoood, the health board chief executive, apologised unreservedly to patients and said he would ensure that everything possible was done to have their treatment carried out at the earliest possible opportunity.

The health board would not say what the precise problem was except that it was a network rather than a computer issue. The statement said it related to the way staff can connect to some of the clinical and administrative systems.

The appointments and procedures that have been cancelled were largely because detailed imaging or other patient information was not accessible.

The board statement said 7,400 appointments and procedures had, however, gone ahead as planned. The board, which is the biggest in the UK, serves 1.2 million people.

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