A network problem temporarily halted surgeries, outpatient and emergency care at UZ Brussel University Hospital in Brussels’ Jette district. The outage affected the hospital’s information infrastructure and telephone services.
The disruption began at around 12:30 p.m. All scheduled surgeries and procedures were cancelled, while outpatient care was suspended until at least 2:30 p.m. Calls to the emergency number 112 were temporarily redirected to other hospitals. The hospital assured that the safety of patients already admitted was guaranteed.
“There is currently a network problem at UZ Brussel affecting the IT infrastructure and telephone services,” hospital spokesperson Carolien De Pre said. According to her, IT teams are investigating the cause and working to restore the connection.
Problems at hospitals in Lier and Antwerp as well
The outage also affected other healthcare facilities connected to UZ Brussel’s servers. At Heilig Hartziekenhuis in Lier, medical staff have no access to patient data, which has led to all appointments being rescheduled.
At AZ Monica in Antwerp, access to patient records was disabled as a precautionary measure. The hospital is nevertheless continuing to provide consultations and perform surgeries, Belga reported. Other healthcare facilities using the same software have so far not reported any disruption.
The cause of the network problem has not yet been established. There is no confirmed information that this was a cyberattack. Hospital IT teams are continuing to work on fixing the outage, while affected patients should expect further information from the healthcare facilities about rescheduled appointments and procedures.
Sources: bruzz.be, bx1.be, healthcare-executive.be