A number of hospitals and municipalities in Brabant are suffering from a nationwide phone outage. Patients cannot make calls to Hospital Bernhoven in Uden and the Máxima Medical Centre in Eindhoven and Veldhoven. There’s a disruption in the outgoing telephone traffic too. The municipalities of Asten, Best, Deurne, Hilvarenbeek, and Maashorst are completely inaccessible by phone. The problems began around seven o’clock Friday morning.
The hospitals and municipalities are Vodafone customers. They are all suffering from an outage on this company’s mobile network. This can make mobile calls impossible. Calling the emergency number 112 may also be more difficult, reports the Central and West Brabant Safety Region. The fire department and police in Southeast Brabant are also warning about this.
How to reach vital services
In Bernhoven, patients can call only from outside the hospital using emergency GSMs. These devices have been handed out to all departments. For emergencies, patients in Bernhoven can dial the emergency number 0413-870300. The internal telephone network in Uden Hospital does work as it should.
The Jeroen Bosch Hospital in Den Bosch was affected by the outage, but here the problems are resolved.
Vodafone is warning customers that they might be able to contact 112, but may not hear anything or be unintelligible to the emergency number operators. The company’s tip is to call 112 from a landline phone.
Vodafone reported the outage early Friday morning. The company says it has found the cause and states that the outage is already becoming less critical. In case of emergencies, Vodafone customers are best advised to call via services such as WhatsApp or FaceTime. Since those are Internet services, they are still working.
An alternative is the 112NL app. This allows people to call the 112 call center, as well as chat. The app also has a translation function for people who do not speak Dutch or English. Those can then still chat with 112 in emergency situations. The app is also practical for the deaf and hard of hearing and people who have difficulty speaking.
Enexis’ fault number is difficult to reach for people having a Vodafone subscription.
Source: OmroepBrabant
Translation: Chaitali Sengupta. She also gives online INBURGERING classes.
