'Dangerous' IT chaos hitting four Greater Manchester hospitals set to 'last another week', medics warn

IT chaos at four of the region’s major hospitals are expected to roll into next week as it still hasn't been fixed, say worried staff. The turbulent technology is wreaking havoc on patients and staff - causing disruptions to electronic prescribing of medicines, tracking patients as they are treated on wards, and reliably finding test results.

The failures have hit Royal Oldham, Fairfield General , Rochdale Infirmary , and North Manchester General for more than a week. Now medics have warned the delays could last for another week as IT experts have been drafted in from abroad to try to fix the major issue. Another staff member added ‘some systems were back up’ but others were not.

The trust has ruled out any cyber-attack, malware or hacking incident, saying all patient records and personal data held remain secure and unaffected. A cause for the failure has yet to be formally shared, however, with the ' primary focus being on restoration of the digital IT systems'. Once services are fully restored, detailed root cause analysis work will be done by the trust's digital IT team.

READ MORE:'We're losing patients in hospitals': Chaos in Greater Manchester's hospitals as week-long IT crash continues

The strain on patients and staff comes despite continuity plans which have moved wards from an online setup to a paper system. The paper system is functional and is 'working', according to one senior hospital source, staff admit that typically fast tasks are now taking much longer as 'everything has to be handwritten'.

Without a digital record, doctors have told the M.E.N. they are ‘losing patients’ who have been admitted to hospital as they move from ward to ward. This could result in ‘missed deterioration’, they fear, among