By Joy Watters

A MAJOR computer server in the NHS Tayside network crashed in the early hours of yesterday and was off for around 12 hours.

No lives were put at risk, but staff said they were horrified by a lack of rapid response from the health authority’s information technology department.

The out-of-hours doctors service based at the Wallacetown Health Centre was one of those affected by the crash.

They were told that an IT technician said he did not have a key for the NHS computer centre at Dundee’s Maryfield and that the matter would have to wait until this morning.

The computer crash not only affected Tayside’s out-of-hours service but also the accident and emergency department of Ninewells Hospital and a system that allows health professionals to access lab results.

The Wallacetown out-of-hours staff were further stunned when they were told that the IT technician without the key had only been phoned because the first on-call person had not had his mobile switched on.

The system was up and running again after around 12 hours and NHS Tayside stressed that there had been no effect on patient care.

Shona Singers, head of communications for NHS Tayside, said, “A major server fault happened last night and while our out-of-hours IT support tried to resolve the problem, staff working in the centre immediately started to use their back-up manual system.

“There was absolutely no effect on patient care and the IT system was back up and running late morning.

On the delay in getting IT support to Maryfield, she said, “When our first point of contact for out-of-hours realised this was a major fault, he escalated the reporting procedure within the organisation to make sure the right people were contacted and the problem resolved as soon as possible.”

Mrs Singers said she understood the fault had occurred around midnight but did not know what time technicians attended at Maryfield.

Information is usually relayed by computer from the NHS 24 centre in Dunfermline to Wallacetown, the local hub for out-of-hours service for Tayside, but the crash meant that details had to be faxed, with resultant delays.

The computer server crash also posed problems for staff at Ninewells Hospital’s accident and emergency department.

Another casualty was the Vision system which allows doctors access to lab results and previous hospital admissions.