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All systems returning to normal following critical incident at Torbay Hospital today

Published: 23 September 2019

Well-rehearsed contingency plans have been implemented today in response to an IT failure at Torbay Hospital and all systems are now returning to normal.

Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust’s IT teams worked all night responding to the issue, which affected some IT and communication systems, eg phones, email, clinical systems at:

  • Torbay Hospital
  • All Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust community sites, including Newton Abbot Hospital, Totnes Hospital, Brixham Hospital and Dawlish Hospital
  • GP practices in the South Devon and Torbay

Mental health services run by Devon Partnership NHS Trust (DPT) from the Torbay Hospital are UNAFFECTED and are running as normal. Patients should continue to attend their DPT appointments.

Advice is changing as systems are restored – patients and staff should visit the following websites for the latest information:

Torbay Hospital

Torbay Hospital is on OPEL 4 – the highest level of escalation – and the Accident and Emergency department is prioritising life-threatening emergencies only.

All outpatient activity at Torbay Hospital, including planned, routine (non-urgent surgery) has been CANCELLED today, Monday 23 September. More information will follow later today. Even though the systems are coming back online, these appointments are still cancelled today.

Inpatients are being cared for in the usual way and are unaffected.

Advice to patients:

  • Think about what you can do to self-care
  • Local pharmacies can help with a range of minor conditions
  • If you think your GP can help, call your local practice – connection to GP practices has now been restored.
  • Call 111 or click on 111.nhs
  • Minor Injury Units in South Devon and Torbay are open and working as normal at Totnes, Newton Abbot and Dawlish
  • Only call 999 in an emergency

GP practices

Almost all the 27 GP practices across South Devon and Torbay experienced a loss of computing and communication technology this morning.

As of 12pm midday on 23 September, connection to all practices was restored

The Trust is advising GPs that Order Comms, the online referral system, is now operational and should be used with immediate effect.

GP practices are advised that even though connection has been restored, a further failure cannot be ruled out while the root cause is being confirmed.

Advice to GP patients:

  • If you have an appointment at your local practice, attend as normal
  • If you need to see your GP contact the practice as normal

Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust apologises for the inconvenience this outage is causing, and asks for people’s understanding while it does everything it can to resolve this issue.

The Trust is pleased to see systems returning to normal. However, patients and their relatives have been asked to bear with them today as the incident will create a minor backlog.