UZ Brussel suspends outpatient and emergency care over network outage, Flemish hospitals hit

Suspension at UZ Brussel

The Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel (UZ Brussel) in Jette suspended its outpatient and emergency care around 12:30 on Tuesday, 10 November, after a network problem affected its IT infrastructure and telephone systems. Scheduled operations and medical procedures were cancelled or postponed, and outpatient consultations were cancelled at least until 14:30. Ambulances were diverted to other hospitals, and urgent calls to the 112 emergency number were redirected elsewhere. Patients already admitted to the wards remained in care. The hospital's IT services were trying to identify the cause and restore the connection.

An unclear cause

The hospital had not established what triggered the outage, and it was not yet known whether a cyberattack was involved. VRT NWS reported that the problem could relate to the electronic patient record system (DPI) developed at UZ Brussel, a platform that other hospitals also use. That link had not been confirmed when the reports were published. Several hospitals in Flanders are linked to the Brussels servers, which is how the disruption reached them.

Knock-on effects in Flanders

The disruption reached several hospitals in Flanders that share software with UZ Brussel or are connected to its servers. At AZ Monica in Antwerp, patient records were switched off as a precaution, and the hospital described the step as preventive, but consultations and operations continued. At the Heilig Hart hospital in Lier (Sacré-Cœur de Lierre in French reports), staff could no longer reach medical records, so appointments were moved to a later time and work was done on paper. The Sint-Andries hospital in Tielt also switched to paper and pen, but said there was no effect on patients, since it could still consult all patient data from a backup made early that morning. It hoped the problems would be solved by the evening. AZ Jan Palfijn in Ghent, which uses the same platform, said it had disconnected from the UZ Brussel servers in time and was unaffected. AZ Zeno in Knokke-Heist and Sint-Elisabeth in Zottegem, which use the same software, had so far been spared.

Patient safety and official responses

Karolien Deprez, the UZ Brussel spokesperson, said that patient safety in the inpatient wards was assured.

“The safety of patients in the inpatient wards is guaranteed.”

Annelies Wynant, a spokesperson for the federal health service (SPF Santé publique), said urgent medical ambulances were not being sent to UZ Brussel but to hospitals nearby. Deprez added that emergency calls were being redirected to other hospitals as well. Operations and procedures at UZ Brussel stayed on hold while the network was being checked.

What comes next

The next update on the situation was due at 14:00 at the earliest. Outpatient cancellations stood until at least 14:30, and the reports gave no time for restoring service. Sint-Andries in Tielt hoped the fault would be fixed by that evening. The articles do not say when normal service would return at UZ Brussel or at the affected Flemish hospitals.