NHS IT, Records and Data

‘Networking outage’ knocks out internet and NHS patient records in Wales

A “networking outage” across the NHS in Wales yesterday left GPs unable to access test results, patient results or letters from other staff.

The failure at two Wales National Data centres has now been resolved, a statement from the Wales Department of Health and Social Services confirmed – but doctors said they were concerned by the problem, which occurred less than a year after the WannaCry attack in 2017.

“Both NHS Wales National Data Centres are now back on-line following an earlier networking outage. All clinical systems are now available,” a Welsh Government spokesperson commented.

“NWIS will continue to monitor the situation and work with our equipment suppliers to investigate the root cause.

“We appreciate that this will have caused disruption to our service users and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

Dr David Bailey, chair of the BMA’s Welsh Council, said that members had reported 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,” he said. 

“Welsh patients are those who will ultimately be affected, particularly if this results in doctors and other healthcare providers being unable to view medical records. We hope the situation is resolved quickly.”