Fears have been raised that the NHS could be hit by cyber security issues because organisations are not prepared to migrate to Windows 11.
From 14 October 2025, Microsoft Windows 10 will no longer receive security updates, but outdated hardware may not be able to upgrade to Windows 11.
James Rawlinson, director of health informatics at the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust, told Digital Health News: “When lockdown happened on 16 March 2020, within 24 hours the NHS was dishing out more laptops than it ever had done.
“At Rotherham – and this was replicated across the country – our mix of desktop PCs to laptops shifted completely.
“Traditionally in the NHS it was about 70% PCs and 30% laptops, but that mix is now more like 80% laptops.
“Laptops don’t last forever – they wear out and become older much faster than desktop computers.
“Those laptops from lockdown are now five years old, which means lots of them need updating.
“For chief information officers (CIOs) across Yorkshire and Humber this is a real problem because the NHS capital budget hasn’t grown to accommodate these things that are five-years-old in the next financial year.
“It’s a tsunami of events – lots of kits that are five years old and need updating plus a major Windows update that needs accommodating, so we’re all scrabbling around working out how to manage with that.
“This could put us at a greater cybersecurity vulnerability as we’ll no longer be able to have patches and security updates for those Windows 10 devices.”
Rawlinson added that there needs to be national capital funding provided for underlying technology infrastructure in healthcare.
Microsoft published a blog post in October 2024 advising about how to prepare for the end of Windows 11.
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