Hospital battles computer virus
HOSPITALS spend thousands of pounds each year in the battle against viruses.
Methods to beat the bugs include hand hygiene, good housekeeping and even specially-adapted computer keyboards which do not attract bacteria.
But despite a zero-tolerance approach to infection, a Suffolk hospital has had to admit that a bug recently got the better of it.
Thankfully for patients and staff at Ipswich Hospital it was more technological than biological.
On June 2 the Ipswich Hospital website was hacked into and infected with a virus.
This meant that visitors to the website could not access the latest up-to-date information from the Heath Road hospital.
Jan Rowsell, spokeswoman for the Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust, said: “We have had major problems. The website was corrupted and it was hacked into by somebody.
“It is hosted by an external organisation and it did suffer a few days of being down because it was sadly infiltrated by a virus. It was then put right but it came back fairly quickly and we had sporadic problems with it.
“We are not immune to what happens to all websites. We use it to supplement and give additional information and if the website is down we encourage people to give us a call directly.”
The website is now running back to normal and Ipswich Hospital said it was looking into additional security methods to prevent further infections.
By Anthony Bond
Original Article
