Belgian hospitals switch to paper after a shared patient record system goes down
Several hospitals in Belgium lost access to their electronic patient records on the afternoon of 10 November after a network outage at UZ Brussel, the university hospital in Jette. According to VRT NWS, the failure hit the hospital's IT infrastructure and its phone lines. The problem appears to sit in PrimUZ, a patient record system that UZ Brussel developed and that other hospitals also use, so clinics in Antwerp, Lier and Tielt went down with it. UZ Brussel says it has no indication of a cyberattack. The cause has not been named.
In short
- UZ Brussel cancelled planned operations and all outpatient care for the rest of the day, and diverted ambulances to other hospitals.
- AZ Monica in Antwerp and Heilig Hart in Lier could not open patient files online, and hospitals in Lier and Tielt moved to paper records.
- The hospital says there is no sign of a hack, and it is not yet clear whether the system will be back by 11 November.
What stopped at UZ Brussel
The hospital is carrying out only urgent interventions. Planned operations were cancelled, outpatient consultations were called off for the rest of the day, and the emergency department is sending patients to other hospitals until further notice. Spokesperson Karolien Deprez told VRT that the hospital is investigating and working on a fix, and that patient safety was never at risk. "It is not yet clear whether everything will be resolved by tomorrow," she said.
Why other hospitals were hit
PrimUZ is used beyond Brussels, and that is how one hospital's outage spread. AZ Monica in Antwerp and Heilig Hartziekenhuis in Lier could not consult patient records online. AZ Monica said it has alternatives that limit the disruption, and staff in Lier moved to recording information on paper, with no impact on patients, according to the hospital. Sint-Andriesziekenhuis in Tielt also switched to paper, but it can still see patient data thanks to a backup made early that morning, and it hoped to have the problem fixed by the evening.
Not every hospital on the same platform was affected. AZ Jan Palfijn in Ghent, AZ Rivierenland and AZ Sint-Elisabeth in Zottegem reported no problems: they either cut their connection to the UZ Brussel servers in time or were no longer linked to them.
Not a hack, for now
A simultaneous failure at several hospitals invites talk of an attack, and some early reports asked whether it was a hack. So far UZ Brussel calls it an IT problem and says it sees no indication of a cyberattack. The episode still shows what a shared system means in practice: when one central record platform goes down, the hospitals connected to it can lose their files at the same moment, unless they cut the link in time. VRT said it would publish a further update in the evening.
