Northern Care Alliance ‘move systems to a stable platform’ as IT issues continue

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The affected hospitals: Rochdale Infirmary, Fairfield General Hospital, the Royal Oldham Hospital, North Manchester General Hospital

IT issues are continuing to affect Northern Care Alliance NHS hospitals, but systems have been moved to “a stable platform.”

A major IT failure across four hospitals local to the Rochdale borough – Rochdale Infirmary, Fairfield General, Royal Oldham and North Manchester General – was declared on 18 May, causing severe delays for patients.
 

Read more: Ongoing IT issues cause severe delays at local hospitalsPublished: 25 May 2022

In an update, published on 7 June, the trust said: “Our IT colleagues alongside clinical and support staff have been working throughout the IT incident to move systems to a stable platform.

“We have enabled access to core clinical systems last week with further systems becoming accessible throughout this week as part of a phased controlled release.”

The update confirmed that the Northern Care Alliance is “confident that the IT failure is not related to any malware or hacking incident,” adding “all our patient records and personal data held remain secure and unaffected.”

The critical incident was declared after an IT software issue resulted in “several” of the trust’s critical clinical and digital systems becoming “inaccessible for staff” meaning they have been “unable to access clinical information or diagnostic tests online.”

Patients who have a hospital appointment are advised to attend unless contacted directly by the trust and told otherwise. Where a patient has an appointment or surgery postponed, they will be rescheduled as a priority and kept informed of the earliest available appointment date.

The trust adds: “We would like to apologise to any patients, and their families, who have had surgery postponed. This will be rebooked as soon as possible and the patient informed.

“Thank you for your ongoing patience as we continue our recovery from digital systems failure. We apologise for any issues this may have caused patients and their families.”