Some half a million NHS computers are said to be still running the outdated Windows 7 operating system, meaning the government well and truly missed its own target of upgrading all PCs.
The target was for the upgrades to be complete by January this year.
And what’s even worse, the real figures could be even higher.
This has been revealed in a report that suggests at least a third of the UK health service computers are still powered by Windows 7, the OS that went out of support last month. Meaning, Microsoft is no longer automatically fixing any newly discovered bugs or security flaws in the platform.
Microsoft is, nevertheless, offering extended support to the organization, after the company already allowed NHS organizations to upgrade to Windows 10 for free in April 2018. With the condition that they had to upgrade these PCs no longer than January 14, 2020, the end of support date.
NHS Digital, in a statement:
“There is support from Microsoft for devices using Windows 7, in all NHS organizations, until 14 January 2021. Migration to Windows 10 is a process which will differ depending on the specific needs of the organization.
We are working closely with the NHS to offer support to migrate to Windows 10 and are on target to complete this before the extended support period ends.”
According to the figures provided, of the 1.37 million PCs and laptops that are under use by the NHS, at least 463,784 are still running the retired operating system.
Another 587,531 are thankfully on Windows 10, while a few thousand are rocking Windows 8.
Much work to be done.
