Critical incident at Torbay & South Devon NHS Trust after IT failure

All routine surgery and outpatients at Torbay Hospital cancelled today.

The NHS in South Devon and Torbay has apologized after a "critical IT systems failure" which has led to appointments today being cancelled. 

In a series of tweets, it said: "We have declared a critical incident following a critical IT systems failure. Our IT staff have been working overnight to try to resolve the issues and restore IT resilience, but we have had to cancel all routine surgery and outpatients appointments today. GP practices, #Torbay Hospital and all our community sites are affected. Please only come to Torbay Hospital if it is critical for you to do so. We apologise for the inconvenience and distress this will cause and will update our website as soon as there is any news."

However Devon Partnership Trust appointments at Torbay Hospital are running as normal and patients due to attend the Eye Clinic or Eye Theatre are being asked to attend appointments as usual UNLESS you have received a phone call from the hospital to postpone your appointment.

Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Nurse, Jane Viner, commented: “Torbay Hospital is extremely busy and we are operating at OPEL 4 –the highest level of escalation. We are cancelling all routine operations for today and ask people only to come to Torbay Hospital if it is critical that they do so.“We apologise for the inconvenience and disruption this situation will inevitably cause, and ask for people’s understanding while we do everything we can to urgently restore our IT resilience.”

For updates, please check here

1/3: We have declared a critical incident following a critical IT systems failure. Our IT staff have been working overnight to try to resolve the issues and restore IT resilience...

— Torbay & South Devon NHS (@TorbaySDevonNHS) September 23, 2019