Hospitals Caught up in Significant IT Outage

Hospitals Caught up in Significant IT Outage
Victoria Ambulances are seen at the St. Vincent Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, on Jan. 11, 2022. (Diego Fedele/Getty Images)
AAP
By AAP
3/8/2023
Updated:
3/8/2023

One of Victoria’s major healthcare providers, Eastern Health, is dealing with a significant IT system outage that is affecting one of Melbourne’s largest public health services.

Eastern Health operates Angliss Hospital, Box Hill Hospital, Maroondah Hospital, Wantirna Health and Yarra Ranges Health, among other services in an around Victoria.

The outage, which has forced the provider to declare a code yellow internal emergency, was declared at 7:45 a.m. on Thursday, with Eastern Health saying it is working to fix the outage.

It is thought that the issue has been caused by a critical core switch outage, with Eastern Health saying in a statement they believe there is no evidence that the situation is a result of a cyber-attack.

“The issue has been caused by a critical core switch outage that we are currently working to rectify. There is no evidence of a cyber attack,” Eastern Health said.

“Hospital systems have reverted to downtime procedures, and business continuity plans have been enacted.”

The health service provider said that they would keep staff, patients, and healthcare partners informed about the situation.

More to come