The networking infrastructure used by the UK's Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust is putting digital clinical systems at risk, a review found.
As reported by DigitalHealth, a recent Trust Board Paper found that the NHS Trust's networking infrastructure - comprised of Cisco switches (3850, 2960, 4500, 6800 series) and an 'Extreme Wireless Local Area Network' (LAN) - is more than five years old and rated its risk level as "extremely high."
The paper goes on to state that the networking has "become obsolete" and is "lacking vendor support," which increases the risk of failure.
Six critical switches in the core and distribution layer, and 73 "Edge" switches will reach end of life at the end of October this year, while eight ports on one of the core switches have already stopped working and were forced to be moved, the paper adds.
Furthermore, the Trust has 556 wireless access points and a pair of wireless management controllers, which only support 1 Gig uplinks and don’t support 6E wireless technology.
The Trust Board recommends a "comprehensive upgrade to the Cisco Catalyst 9k switches along with implementing the Cisco Catalyst 9k wireless LAN controller and access points” by the end of 2025, noting that "failure of some items that can no longer be replaced would be catastrophic as the whole trust would be affected."
During a board meeting, Julius Christmas - a non-executive director at the NHS Trust - confirmed the issue of legacy hardware. "I came away aware that, despite best endeavours, the IT team is dealing with several legacy issues with limited capacity and single points of failure in terms of skills. These legacy issues include critical platforms, which could have [a] significant impact if not addressed and should be reflected on the risk register,” Christmas said.
A spokesperson for Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust told Digital Health: “The trust acknowledges that certain legacy IT systems and end-of-life network infrastructure present challenges. While there is no immediate evidence suggesting these issues have directly compromised patient safety, we recognise the potential risks associated with outdated technology.
“The legacy issues impact a few critical platforms, including electronic patient records (EPR), electronic prescribing and medicines administration (EPMA), and clinical decision support systems. We have initiated a comprehensive digital transformation program, including infrastructure upgrades, cybersecurity enhancements, and staff training to ensure our workforce is equipped to utilize new technologies effectively.
“We will always ensure patient safety remains our utmost priority, and we are actively working to mitigate any risks.”
IT and networking are imperative to keeping the UK's national health service running smoothly. In 2024, two hospitals in Nottingham were unable to deliver pathology services after an IT failure, the exact cause of which was not shared.
Earlier that year, two hospitals in Sussex suffered outages caused by a power failure in their IT room, which temporarily shut down all IT systems.
In 2022, London-based Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust suffered a significant outage during a summer heatwave, leaving doctors unable to access patient medical records and ultimately costing the NHS around £1.4m ($1.7m).
