Scottish NHS IT systems are to be reviewed after a failure forced a major health board to cancel hundreds of appointments.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde postponed 459 outpatient appointments, 14 inpatient procedures, 43 day cases and 48 chemotherapy treatments.
Over the past two days around 7,400 patients have been able to attend appointments, according to the health board.
Technicians have been working to restore the clinical and administrative systems at the health board.
Scotland’s Health Secretary Alex Neil instructed that a review be carried out “to make sure that these systems are robust”.
He told MSPs at Holyrood that the IT problems at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde appear to have been fixed.
Technicians have been trying to restore the clinical and administrative systems since the network servers failed on Tuesday.
The problems were compounded when the backup system did not kick in, Mr Neil said.
“I can report that NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have now been able to resolve the problem with the server and incrementally reloading users back on to the system. It would appear that no data appears to have been lost. Around 50% of users now have access to the system, and the remainder should have access by later this evening.
“However, the system is being closely monitored to ensure it remains robust.
“Early indications are that less than 10% of outpatient appointments have been affected by this incident and there has been minimal impact on day cases and inpatient appointments,” Mr Neil said.
“I understand that the failure is related to network servers that serve a number of the board’s systems and sites. This meant that clinicians were unable to access some services, including some patient records and imaging.
“In addition, the recognised standby process did not kick in.”
While the problems had only “minimal impact”, the Health Secretary said: “I would, however, express my concern for all those patients whose treatment was affected yesterday and today.”
Scottish Labour health spokesman Neil Findlay said the situation is “very worrying” because similar IT systems are used by other health boards.
“Will the Cabinet Secretary instruct an independent review of all IT systems being used, to ensure that robust contingency plans are in place across Scotland?” he asked.
Mr Neil told him: “I have already instructed a robust review right across the National Health Service in Scotland with all NHS boards to make sure that these systems are robust and the back-up systems are robust.”