The security issue was identified at 7am on Thursday and affected the system used to dispatch ambulances, book out-of-hours appointments and issue emergency prescriptions. There are fears that these technical difficulties may not be fully resolved until next week. The Welsh Ambulance Service says the disruption is significant and widespread – affecting all four nations in the UK. Although it has “developed and developed plans so that services can continue to operate”, this weekend is set to be busier than usual for 111 in Wales – and it may take longer to answer calls. NHS England says 111 services are still available and there is “currently minimal disruption”, with “tried and tested emergency plans in place”. A Scottish Government spokesman said it was aware of a reported outage to a system used by one of NHS Scotland’s suppliers – adding it was working with other health boards and the National Cyber Security Center “to fully understand the potential implications “. The Department of Health in Northern Ireland is also working to keep disruption to a minimum, and steps have been taken to avoid the risk of other critical systems and services being affected. Advanced, the software and services provider affected by the cyberattack, said the issue was limited to a “small number of servers” representing 2% of its health and care infrastructure. Chief executive Simon Short added: “We are continuing to work with the NHS and health and care providers, as well as our technology and security partners, focusing on getting all systems back up over the weekend and early next week.”
