Virus halts hospital computers

Laura May,Pa
Tuesday 18 November 2008 15:55 GMT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

A computer virus has shut down the entire computer system at three London hospitals, trust officials confirmed today.

The bug infected the system at St Bartholomew's (Barts) and The London NHS Trust - which is made up of Barts in the City, the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel and The London Chest Hospital in Bethnal Green - on Monday at noon.

Attempts to fix the problem overnight failed and a team of engineers has been formed today to get the Trust back online.

A spokesman for the Trust said that while emergency procedures had been activated to keep key clinical systems operating safely he could not yet say whether patient care or the day-to-day running of the hospital had been affected.

Geoff Martin, of campaign group Health Emergency, said: "This was a disaster waiting to happen and it calls into question the billions of pounds committed to NHS computerisation for a system that has fallen at the first hurdle."

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in