Region Sörmland experienced widespread IT system failures on Wednesday morning that grounded healthcare services across the county. The disruption affected the Cosmic patient records system, internal networks and the region’s website, forcing the healthcare provider into emergency standby mode before systems were restored by early afternoon.
The most visible impact hit women scheduled for mammography appointments, who were sent home and told to rebook after screening equipment could not access patient records through the disrupted Cosmic system, according to Katrineholms-Kuriren. The region’s IT director Urban Petrén confirmed to media that “the extensive IT problems in healthcare in Sörmland were resolved shortly after lunch on Wednesday.”
No Attack Found, But Timing Highlights Cosmic’s Troubled History
Region Sörmland ruled out external cyberattacks as the cause of Wednesday’s outage pointing instead to technical failures in their IT infrastructure. The disruption comes at a particularly sensitive time for the region which implemented the controversial Cosmic patient records system in September 2025 at a cost exceeding 500 million kronor.
Cosmic has faced mounting criticism since its rollout across Region Sörmland. Staff have reported recurring technical failures, patient safety risks and system crashes that occur daily, according to SVT reporting. The system is part of a broader nine-region procurement through the Sussa partnership that has drawn scrutiny from both healthcare workers and procurement oversight bodies.
The 4.3 billion kronor Sussa agreement with vendor Cambio is currently under investigation by Sweden’s competition authority which alleges contract modifications violated procurement regulations and is seeking 10 million kronor penalties from each participating region.
Emergency Protocols Worked, But Questions Remain
Region Sörmland’s activation of emergency standby protocols demonstrates that their business continuity planning functioned as designed when IT systems failed. The region maintained essential services through manual procedures while technical teams restored connectivity to core systems including Cosmic.
However, Wednesday’s outage adds to a growing list of operational disruptions linked to healthcare IT modernisation efforts across Sweden. The timing is particularly awkward given that the government announced a “crisis investigation” into failed healthcare IT procurements just days ago, specifically citing problems with both Cosmic and Oracle’s Millennium system in other regions.
The disruption also affected Sörmlandstrafik’s website and booking systems, though passengers could still purchase tickets through other channels. This suggests the outage may have originated in shared infrastructure serving multiple county services rather than being isolated to healthcare systems.
For healthcare providers relying on tightly integrated digital systems, Wednesday’s incident in Region Sörmland illustrates how quickly operational disruption can cascade from IT failures to direct patient service impacts. When mammography appointments cannot proceed because patient records are inaccessible, the technology meant to improve healthcare efficiency becomes the barrier preventing it.
References
- Stora it-problem i Region Sörmland – regionen gick upp i stabsläge
- Katrineholms-Kuriren: Region Sörmland hemsida ligger nere
- Sörmlands Nyheter: Haveriutredning ska syna Sörmlands journalsystem
- Granskning: Journalsystem kan ha bidragit till dödsfall i flera regioner
- Upphandling24: Stort it-projekt haltar
This post is also available in:
Svenska
Related News
South Staffordshire Water Fined £964,000 After Hackers Lurked Undetected for Two Years
The Information Commissioner's Office fined South Staffordshire Water £963,900 on Monday after the Cl0p ransomware group remained inside its network for nearly two years, exposing…
May 12, 2026 
Europol Warns Middle East Conflict Raises EU Terror Threat
March 10, 2026