Four of Greater Manchester’s Hospitals have been hit by an IT failure which is affecting patient care and emergency admissions
In a statement released this afternoon the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust said that it has been experiencing disruption and instability issues in some of its digital IT clinical systems.
The Greater Manchester’s Hospitals Digital IT team continues to investigate the issues with the relevant technology providers to resolve this.
Dr Chris Brookes, Deputy CEO and Chief Medical Officer for the Northern Care Alliance NHS Trust said:
“We are still working hard to resolve the significant IT issues that have been affecting some of our digital systems at our hospitals at Oldham, Bury and Rochdale, as well as North Manchester General Hospital which is run by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. Salford Royal is unaffected.
“This means that our clinical teams are continuing to rely on our robust contingency plans for such critical incidents.
“Patient safety and maintaining essential services remains our priority. We are doing everything we can to fix the IT issues and to limit disruption to patients and our services. However, unfortunately some patients may experience some delays and additional waiting across some of our services such as outpatient appointments, diagnostic tests or scans. We apologise for this.
“All patient records and personal data held by the NHS and Trust remains secure and unaffected.
“Patients who have a hospital appointment whether for planned surgery or as an outpatient should continue to attend unless they are contacted directly by the Trust and told otherwise.
“Our Emergency Departments are particularly busy at the moment. For those who feel they need to attend our emergency departments, they are likely to be waiting longer than normal if they have minor ailments. We are asking the public to think carefully before attending. We would, as always, recommend that you contact NHS 111 or seek advice from your local pharmacy or GP.”
