Toronto hospital network declares Code Grey amid Microsoft outage - Toronto Star

Unity Health Toronto declares Code Grey as a Microsoft 365 outage disrupts email services. 

According to Unity Health, a Code Grey is declared when a hospital experiences an infrastructure failure.

Unity Health Toronto has declared a Code Grey as a widespread Microsoft 365 outage disrupts email services at the hospital network Thursday.

The network, which operates St. Michael’s Hospital in downtown Toronto, St. Joseph’s Health Centre in the city’s west end and Providence Healthcare in Scarborough, posted a notice about the disruption on its website.

According to Unity Health, a Code Grey is declared when a hospital experiences an infrastructure failure.

“Our backup systems prioritize essential equipment and life safety — some equipment and services may not be available while code is ongoing,” the hospital network said.

It was not immediately clear whether the outage had affected patient care, appointments or other hospital operations, or whether all three sites were affected.

The Hospital for Sick Children also reported issues Thursday, saying some phone calls and emails to hospital staff may not be getting through due to the outage.

The disruption comes as Microsoft works to fix a widespread outage affecting Outlook and other Microsoft 365 services, with users across North America and elsewhere reporting problems accessing their email accounts.

Microsoft said Thursday that some of its servers had unexpectedly gone offline, putting extra pressure on the remaining systems and causing connection problems.

The company said it was working to bring the affected servers back online and redirect traffic to help restore services. In its latest update, Microsoft said its efforts to restore service had not worked as expected. 

Matthew Daldalian is a staff reporter with the Star. Reach him via email: mdaldalian@thestar.ca