Upgrade to antivirus software – expected impact on users

The maintenance is now complete. Thanks for your patience.

Update:

We understand this update is disruptive, but additional functionality has been added to Checkpoint which now allows staff to have a little flexibility about when the update occurs.

The deployment of the update is in two groups.

Wards and other critical locations (e.g. ED, theatres) These location will be notified of a two-hour window in which their updates will be completed. This has begun already, and engineers may be visiting the areas; managers have been notified.

All other computers All other computers, including those in community locations, will have their update completed on Friday 27 September unless they take the steps outlined in the Digital Services bulletin email (sent Thursday 19 September). The update will be sent out to all computers on Friday 20 September at 8am. It will be delayed from performing the update for 7 days. Staff can choose when to do the update, as long as it is completed by Friday 27 September at 12noon.

Do not try and update the software before this date and time as the main update will not be available. If you do not update the software at your own convenience, it will run as scheduled on Friday 27 September.

The scheduled maintenance is now underway. We'll keep you updated on our progress.

The cyber security team will be performing a mandatory update to our anti-virus software, Checkpoint, during September. The rolling programme of updates will begin immediately and completed remotely by the team on all computers in the Trust. The completion date has been set nationally so we are required to complete the work by the end of September.

Unfortunately, the upgrade requires a restart of the computer and it does not give a warning when this will happen; there is also no way to delay the restart. We apologise for the inconvenience that this may cause.

Ward computers and other critical areas will be contacted in advance with a more precise timeline, but due to the urgency of getting this completed across the organisation, we cannot do this for all users.