Around 35 per cent of National Health Service Trusts working across the UK are still running the age old Windows XP operating system, seven months after life support for the OS expired, new report claims.
The UK government had paid a whopping £5.5 million for a one year Windows XP support extension until April 8th 2015 to allow its departments to migrate to new operating systems.
But according to new information from Citrix, 74 per cent of the NHS trusts have admitted they wouldn’t be able to make the switch until March 2015, while 14 per cent have no formal plans in place for an upgrade.
The information uncovered from a Freedom of Information request made by Citrix also revealed that only five NHS Trusts are using XP through desktop virtualisation technology as a way round the security issues raised by Windows XP end of support.
“Like the rest of the public sector, the NHS is under tremendous pressure to do more with less. The IT department is no exception,” said Jason Tooley, UK country manager at Citrix.
“These findings highlight a wider opportunity for NHS Trusts across the UK to harness technology today to transform IT processes for the better.
“Using IT, including desktop and application virtualisation, can positively impact the entire workplace, delivering increased productivity and ultimately improved patient care.”
It seems if the situation continues it may so happen that the UK government could end up signing another support extension agreement with Microsoft for a period of another one year which would likely cost the same £5.5 million paid this year.
