England’s health service triggers contingency after Microsoft outage

LONDON: England’s National Health Service activated contingency plans Friday in response to the global Microsoft outage, reverting to “other IT systems or paper records” to maintain essential care and appointments.

“With the global Microsoft issue inevitably having a disruptive impact for staff, local NHS services are enacting long-standing measures to manage IT outages,” a spokesperson said in a statement sent to AFP, acknowledging that the situation has disrupted staff operations.

A union leader earlier claimed that the outage was having a “serious impact” on Britain’s state health service.

NHS staff receiving emergency calls were “unable to refer patient details in the normal way which is creating a massive backlog and has the potential for chaos,” Rachel Harrison, public services head at the GMB union, said in the statement.