Our award-winning telecare service Care Link earned an early success for its new digital system during the recent global IT outage.
Care Link’s new digital system switched on for the first time on Wednesday 17 July as the team works to get ahead of BT’s digital switchover date at the end of 2027. By that time, all existing landline services are expected to be discontinued and work is ongoing to upgrade all existing Care Link equipment.
Only days after this new system had been switched on, the world experienced a global IT failure on July 19. The failure, caused by a faulty software update, caused widespread disruption to services across the globe including at Care Link and parts of WDH.
Amid the wider disruption, Care Link’s new digital system proved invaluable and was unaffected by issues that impacted the old analogue system. During the time the old system was unavailable, 387 alarm calls were answered on the new system.
Of those 387 calls, 12 were incidents where customers needed support and nine of those were falls incidents. Without the new system in place, it is unlikely that we would have been able to respond as quickly to these callouts.
Care Link manager Kirsty Jewitt said: “Our new digital system has proven its worth already by making sure we could answer these calls during a global crisis. It makes us even more confident that we have done the right thing by getting ahead of the curve for the digital switchover.
“While the new system has now been switched on, there is still work for our teams to do to make sure our equipment is ready for the 2027 deadline. As a Care Link customer, you only need to contact us if you upgrade to a digital line before we exchange your alarm.”
More information about the digital switchover can be found here: www.wdhcarelink.co.uk/digital-switchover/