On Thursday, the software firm Advanced, which supplies patient data to numerous trusts and the majority of NHS 111 providers in England, suffered a cyber attack. Several NHS systems, notably Carenotes, which is used to store patient records, experienced an outage that affected mental health and community services across the nation.
Carenotes have not yet been restored 22 days after the outage. On August 17, a hospital in Birmingham informed its staff that restoration might take an additional five weeks. The experts said that if Carenotes is back up, it will likely take two weeks for every day under current predictions, indicating that full recovery might take longer than a year.
After Carenotes went down, patients' safety concerns about mental health and community trust workers not being able to access their records were raised. According to experts, there have already been instances where staff members have been unable to access patient records, resulting in patients not receiving the proper dosage of their medications.
The staff is also at ris; when you step outside, you never know who might be in danger. Authorities claimed that you cannot create reports for the court based on the Mental Health Act. Last Monday, the staff at Birmingham Children's Hospital, which manages children's mental health services, was informed that the problem might not be solved for additional five weeks.
Hackers are requesting money in exchange for not disclosing private information, leaving the NHS without access to essential services in the interim. The hackers stole GP notes and patient data.
As part of its winterization efforts, the NHS recently stated it would increase the number of call takers to 111. "Politicians and NHS England need to recognize that mental health trusts are working with complicated and high-risk patients, who have a higher risk of mortality," one physician in the east of England said.
The Advanced Carenotes EPR program, which contains mental health records, was also hacked by criminals. Staff members are currently in a very desperate situation, according to the affected mental health trusts, since they are still unable to access crucial patient details.
