NHS Cyber Crisis: The Scandal of Vista

There a has been a cyber attack world wide. But the impact on the UK is acute because it has disabled much of our health service, put staff under tremendous pressure and without doubt put lives at risk. This would be a challenge in itself, but the appalling fact is the NHS should not have been affected. It is because large parts of it are using an out of date unsupported operating system vulnerable to this kind of attack, from which more modern systems are protected. Since 2010 Tory led governments have borrowed more than ever before but have failed to boost economic output sufficient to balance the books.

The consequences are run down and creaking infrastructure vulnerable to failure, or in the case of the NHS, cyber attack. We do not know if power and water supplies are similarly at risk. What we do know is that time and again it has become clear that the NHS is underfunded and over stretched. Now we know that lives are threatened because the IT is clapped out. Vista gave good service on my first laptop, but now I have moved on. Supposing that a system unfit for private use can work safely in the NHS is at the very least reckless and not far short of criminal.