Critical incident declared after computer glitch disrupts blood testing

Two hospitals in the UK city of Nottingham had to postpone blood testing after an unknown “IT failure” impacted hospital services.

City Hospital and Queen's Medical Centre, both operated by the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH), declared a “critical incident” after an IT failure in the Pathology service disrupted the processing of blood test results.

NUH asked the patients not to attend blood testing in both hospitals to make room for cases where delays could not be made.

The critical incident, declared on September 10th, lasted nearly 24 hours. On September 11th, NUH reported that hospital systems were returning to normal, and business would resume as usual.

“We would like to thank all of our colleagues, patients and our partner agencies for your support and dedication in responding to this incident and protecting patient care,” NUH said.

Located in central England, Nottingham houses over 320,000 individuals.

Late this June, several London hospitals had issues with blood testing after the Qilin ransomware gang attacked Synnovis labs, an England National Health Service (NHS) partner. Five NHS hospitals halted critical services as a result.

Over 320 planned operations and 1,294 outpatient appointments were postponed at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.