On Friday, users around the world began encountering a “blue screen of death”, signalling the start of a day of chaos. About 8.5 million Microsoft devices were affected by a bug, resulting in significant global disruption from airlines to finance and even small businesses. Healthcare infrastructure was also affected, which may have endangered an unknown number of lives because of missed appointments, inaccessible patient records, prescriptions and inventory data.
Worldwide, hospitals reported being unable to use their systems to access key information such as schedules, patient medical records and logistics. Reports emerged of cancelled procedures, and non-urgent patients being turned away.
“Many hospitals are cancelling elective procedures today. Patients should direct any questions to their providers because this is a practice-by-practice, hospital-by-hospital decision,” said the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in a statement.
In the UK, NHS England warned of delays and the British Medical Association advised of a backlog for normal GP service.
‘Like practising medicine in the dark ages’
All across Africa reported that many hospitals and clinics depend on Microsoft 365 and cloud services for crucial functions, Nehanda Radio reported. The outage highlights how critical infrastructure has become dependent on the stability of a handful of platforms.
“Our entire hospital was thrown into disarray. We couldn’t access patient files, schedule surgeries, or coordinate with suppliers,” said Dr Amina Salim, the chief medical officer at a major hospital in Abuja, Nigeria.
“It was like practising medicine in the dark ages. Our doctors and nurses were forced to resort to hand-written notes and countless phone calls just to provide basic care.”
“I went to refill my HIV medication and the pharmacist said their computers were down, so they couldn’t look up my prescription. I was worried I’d have to go without my treatment,” said Thembi Ndlovu, a patient in Johannesburg.
The problem was worsened in rural and underserved areas that are heavily reliant on the internet and cloud services for remote consultations, sharing of medical expertise and centralised databases.
“Our telemedicine program came to a screeching halt. We couldn’t video conference with specialists, access test results, or update patient records,” said Dr Khalid Elmahdi, the director of a rural health clinic in Morocco. “It was devastating for communities that have few other options for advanced care.”
The crashes were traced to an update from a security service provider, Crowdstrike – which ironically provides protection solutions against ransomware, a problem that has been plaguing healthcare.
While most services seem to be up and running after the weekend, experts say that it may take weeks for full recovery. Fixing the problem often requires physically accessing the system and installing a USB dongle with recovery software, which can be difficult in certain locations, such as remote clinic.
