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A "critical incident" in the Health IT system earlier this year was just one of "a number of Priority 1 system outage incidents" across Government computer networks, it has emerged – but the Government is refusing to confirm how many others there have been.
These incidents prompted a two-and-a-half month ban on new IT systems or system changes in Government, it has been confirmed.
An investigation into the underlying causes of the Health IT issue is in the "final stages of being concluded".
At the end of February, the Hospital's main IT system and its emergency back-up both failed in a “critical incident” which left some wards with no working computers.
Pictured: Earlier this year, Health staff told Express that Health IT system failure was "really unsafe", "high risk" and "chaos".
Chief Information Officer Jason Whitfield said a detailed report would be submitted because of the seriousness of the incident, which forced the Hospital to cancel 34 procedures.
Mr Whitfield explained that the problem occurred when a routine software update from a third-party provider – one of between 200 and 300 such updates annually – was being installed.
Chris Bown, Interim Chief Officer for Health and Community Services, added that “IT system engineers have a high level of confidence that this is not a cyber-related incident".
But it has now emerged that the Health issue was just one of "a number of Priority 1 system outage incidents" which prompted a two-and-a-half month ban on new IT systems or system changes in Government.
The other issues came to light earlier this month when the Jersey Landlords' Association criticised the new online application process for the licensing scheme for rented dwellings as "difficult to use".
The Environment Minister responded to these concerns in a letter which confirmed that the issues experienced with the online application and payment process were "primarily due to an internal change freeze".
He explained that this "freeze" was "mandated by the Modernisation and Digital (M&D) department from 26 February to 12 April 2024 following a number of Priority 1 system outage incidents".
The letter continued: "This change freeze meant that no new systems or system changes were permitted, in order to allow M&D to take the time required to investigate the root causes of outages and to review M&D change procedures to take steps to mitigate the risks of reoccurrence."
Mr Whitfield explained: “Standard industry practice is followed for categorising IT incidents. Priority 1 incidents are those which significantly impact a critical service or affect a large number of users.
"The majority of Priority 1 incidents only impact internal system users for a short period of time and can occur a few times a month. Where these affect critical public services, such as Health, then they are communicated to service users."
He continued: “The Priority 1 incident affecting HCS users on 23 February led to an internal change freeze on non-urgent and non-essential system modifications whilst the underlying causes were investigated."
Mr Whitfield confirmed that the investigation is in the "final stages of being concluded".
"Improvements have already been made and others are planned to enhance the robustness of internal procedures and IT infrastructure," he added.
But despite repeated inquiries from Express, the Government refused to confirm how many Priority 1 system outages took place, and which systems were impacted.
Mr Whitfield explained: “The Priority 1 incident impacting the health service was communicated so that islanders were able to understand what happened on 23 February 2024, as we aim to inform islanders as promptly as possible when IT incidents affect critical public services.
"It is essential the Government of Jersey, as a public service, holds islanders’ personal and confidential information and data safe.
"For this reason, we do not share specific details of our systems.”
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