NHS hospitals have been urged to improve their IT systems after a fault left a number of health organisations without computer access for two days.
Hospitals in Greater Glasgow and Clyde were slammed for failing to have robust recovery systems in place after their system crashed last week.
The error left hundreds of medical practices without the vital information they needed to treat patients.
Healthcare organisations are now being encouraged to review the computer systems they use in order to prevent a repeat of the situation.
Matt Newing, the CEO of communications provider Elitetele.com, said the public health sector is playing a game of life or death by failing to have better systems in place.
He said: “The protection of data is important for the survival of any organisation.
“However, in healthcare, it is crucial – it can literally mean the difference between life and death.
“We now want to use the event to stress the importance of having the right back-up and disaster recovery procedures in place.”
Hospitals in Scotland found themselves unable to access patient records and other important documents early last week after a server crash and a subsequent failure in the back-up system.
It resulted in outpatient appointments, inpatient procedures, day surgery cases and chemotherapy appointments being postponed.
The problem affected up to 10 hospitals causing more than 600 patients to have their treatment or appointments postponed.
IT expert Matt Newing added: “In this instance there were no fatalities but it could have easily been much worse.
“The slow recovery time clearly indicates a lack of planning on the board’s part and in this day and age there is simply no excuse.
“An IT failure doesn’t just put patient lives at risks, it can also have devastating effects on the organisation.”
