– We have received a message from Telenor that the mobile network is now working as normal. We are therefore discontinuing red alertness and going down to yellow alertness, says crisis manager at UNN, Kristian Bartnes. On Thursday afternoon, the University Hospital in Northern Norway announced that a failure in a Telenor switchboard has caused problems for telephone calls to several hospitals in Northern Norway. UNN has hospital operations in Harstad, Narvik, Longyearbyen and Tromsø. – UNN is on red alert due to a failure in Telenor’s mobile network. This creates trouble for the whole of UNN, wrote communication advisor at UNN, Hege Iren Hanssen in an email. At 5 p.m. UNN in Tromsø held a crisis meeting, and during the meeting Bartnes was told that the phone was now working as normal. He says the consequences of the Telenor problem had a different impact on each hospital. l – We received a message that the voice function in particular, over the mobile network, had problems. If it wasn’t lapsed, it was at least unstable. This means the levels of preparedness at Helse Nord: The level of preparedness shall express the need for emergency management and mobilization of extra personnel and resources, and is not a direct expression of how serious the incident is, to what extent ordinary operations are affected, or of the “take care of” responsibility is threatened. Green preparedness The situation requires increased attention. Emergency management is established and individual functions can be strengthened. It is an unclear situation where extraordinary measures and resources may be needed. Yellow contingency Limited mobilization of additional resources. An unwanted event with limited scope has occurred. The situation must be handled with extraordinary measures and resources. Red preparedness Mobilization of significant resources and restructuring of operations. A serious incident has occurred. There is a great need for extraordinary measures and resources. More about preparedness levels at Helse Nord Kristian Bartnes is crisis manager at the University Hospital in Northern Norway. Photo: Oda Viken Failure of landlines UNN in Narvik was particularly affected because they have switched to only using mobile phones through Telenor. Bartnes does not want to go into detail about how problems arose specifically at UNN in Narvik. This has caused problems: A fault in one of Telenor’s switchboards has caused problems for the emergency number, communication with the police, and delays in train traffic. – The error is due to a power outage at one of our switchboards. We see an improvement in the situation, and are continuing the work to correct the error, said coverage director Bjørn Amundsen in a press release on Wednesday morning. Several healthcare organizations reported problems with communication to the hospitals, and Helse Vest IKT went on yellow alert. In northern Norway, the University Hospital of Northern Norway, with hospitals in Tromsø, Harstad, on Svalbard and in Narvik, went on red alert on Wednesday afternoon, and reported problems with the mobile network to several hospitals. At 17:08, Telenor announced that the mobile problems should be fixed, and UNN went on yellow alert. Hit the emergency room The error also hit the emergency room in Tromsø municipality. – It has had few consequences for us. We have created a separate reserve number for the emergency room, as they are affected by this. This can be found on the municipality’s website, says municipal director Stig Tore Johnsen. AFFECTED: Tromsø emergency room. Photo: Eskil Mehren / news Following the situation Narvik municipality’s emergency response manager, Ole Tobias Olsen, told news that the municipality was not significantly affected by the incident, but had dialogue with UNN Narvik about the situation. Neither in Harstad, where the hospital there is also affected, has the municipality taken special measures for the time being. – The switchboard has been down today, but individually we have received a few calls, wrote Øivind Arvola, communications manager in Harstad municipality, in a text message to news. NARVIK: Hospital operations at both the hospitals in Harstad, Narvik, Tromsø and Longyearbyen are affected. Photo: Henrik Einangshaug / news – Need autonomous solutions in the north Ronny Schjelderup is the emergency manager at the state administrator in Troms and Finnmark. He says that they are aware that the hospitals have notified of consequences following the Telenor trouble. He believes the incident is serious. – It is extremely serious. If we lose the emergency numbers, which everyone is trained to use, we will have problems right away, he says. In February this year, during a storm, several errors were discovered on the hospitals’ internal internet, the so-called health network. Two cables, out of three cables, were affected by faults after cable breaks. Schjelderup believes the events show that there is a need for more autonomous communication systems for Northern Norway. – We are at the end of most electronic communication chains. If errors occur elsewhere in the country, we may be affected. He believes this is important to take into account in emergency plans going forward. – We have to see if it is possible to establish more autonomous solutions in the north. We must become less vulnerable to such incidents in the north, Schjelderup believes. Kristian Bartnes, at UNN, believes that both the telephone network and the Health Network have backup systems that will kick in when communication systems fail. – We will evaluate the internal routines, together with experts at the hospitals, to see if we have to do something with our routines after the incident, says Bartnes. Published 13.11.2024, at 16.08 Updated 13.11.2024, at 18.10
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