Northern Beaches Hospital’s phone line down for over 24 hours
Relatives and friends of patients wanting to check on their condition at Northern Beaches Hospital were forced to leave voicemails after the main phone line shut down.
Manly
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Northern Beaches Hospital’s main phone system was out for more than 24 hours due to a technical issue.
The switchboard was diverted to a back-up system but it was unable to cope with demand meaning some customers had to leave voicemails, a hospital spokesman said.
When the Manly Daily called there was no voicemail option and the phone just rang out.
The issue mainly impacted patients wishing to book appointments or friends or relatives calling to check the condition of loved ones.
A spokesman said more staff were brought in to help return calls.
The internal desk phones were still working and there were no problems with internal communications.
The line was fixed Monday evening.
Northern Beaches Hospital has suffered several technical issues since opening in October, including the main IT system which meant patient discharge summaries were not automatically sent to GPs.
It also effected the capturing of performance data, according to Director of Emergency Andy Ratchford.
The issues were resolved several months ago.
In the last quarterly Bureau of Health Information report, data showed that Northern Beaches Hospital was performing better than most of its peers.