AZ Monica cyberattack disrupts two hospital campuses and forces cancellation and transfer of care

AZ MONICA detected a serious IT disruption at approximately 06:32 on 13/01/2026 and shut down servers across its Antwerp and Deurne campuses to contain a cyberattack. The server shutdown made scheduled procedures unavailable, reduced emergency-department capacity, temporarily disabled MUG and PIT emergency response services, and resulted in the cancellation of at least 70 procedures and the transfer of seven critical-care patients to other hospitals. Recovery of digital clinical systems continued for weeks, with later reporting indicating that electronic patient records, imaging, e-prescriptions and emergency systems were again available roughly a month after the incident. Public reporting initially discussed possible ransomware, but the attack mechanism was not sufficiently confirmed to classify it as ransomware.