'Expect delays': Toronto’s UHN hospital network remains under ‘Code Grey’ amid digital systems outage

UHN's digital systems hit with major outage Toronto's University Health Network says it has suffered an issue with some essential digital systems, leading to a widespread outage.

The University Health Network (UHN) says it is currently under a “Code Grey” as it experiences an outage with its digital systems.

As of 8 p.m., UHN’s website was inaccessible. The patient portal is also down.

“UHN is experiencing outages in our digital systems across our networks,” UHN Spokesperson Gillian Howard told CP24.com in an email. “Our digital team is investigating the issues and will update periodically. Clinical areas are using down time procedures at this time.”

There is no word so far on the cause of the outage or on exactly which systems are affected.

In a statement posted on Twitter Monday evening, UHN says there may continue to be challenges reaching some departments across the network as technicians work to restore service.

“Patients arriving at our hospitals tomorrow, on Tuesday, January 10, should expect delays as we continue to re-establish our network systems,” the statement read.

“As usual, the safety of our patients is our highest priority. We will update on the situation as things progress.”

UHN includes Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.

A Code Grey typically refers to the loss of an essential infrastructure service at a hospital, such as electricity or communications.

The hospital network said that while some of its systems are down, doctors are able to access some medical records using a “down time system.”

Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) initiated a Code Grey last month after the hospital was the subject of a ransomware attack by hackers. The hospital lifted the alert last week after it said 80 per cent of its priority systems had been restored.