Disruptions continuing at hospital after HSE hacked Hundreds of patients hit by hospital hacking crisis
THE service disruptions at Sligo University Hospital caused by the ransomware attack on HSE’s IT systems are expected to continue next week. All diagnostics including x-ray, CT scans, MRI appointments and cardiac investigations are cancelled, as are endoscopy services and all elective inpatient and day case procedures. A number of procedures could go ahead and patients will be contacted if so. Most outpatient clinics are cancelled. A small number of appointments may go ahead and these patients will be contacted directly. Meanwhile, all maternity services including antenatal clinics, antenatal scanning and colposcopy are going ahead.
Patients availing of dialysis or chemotherapy treatment are asked to attend appointments as normal unless contacted and advised otherwise.
The Emergency Department is still open for all emergencies, with patients needing urgent care being prioritised. Where possible, patients should bring their existing patient number or hospital number with them when they come to the hospital or any letter that they have received from the hospital as this will contain information which will make it easier to find existing medical records. Patients should also bring a current list of medications or prescriptions.
Patients are asked to contact their GP or GP out of hours service in the first instance if they do not require urgent attention.
The impact of the ransomware attack is still being felt in the health system across the country.
Cartron native Charlotte Costello was in Galway this week for ongoing cancer treatment. She and her husband, Jonathan, spoke publicly last week about the impact the government’s unwillingess to pay the reported €20 million ransom will have on patients like Charlotte.
They spoke on RTÉ’s Joe Duffy Show and on Ocean FM, and they highlighted the fact that the Sligo Weekender had drawn attention to the issue on its front page.
This week, Charlotte said the situation has improved with the arrival of a decryption key for the HSE’s IT systems, but there remains an anxious wait for radiotherapy treatment as she finds herself now six weeks on from her last appointment.
Speaking to the Sligo Weekender yesterday, Wednesday, she said: “They have moved me over to get my treatment in Galway Clinic. I have had a planning scan but I have no start date as of yet for the radiotherapy, they are working day to day to get people in as quickly and safely as they can.
“They are doing everything they can and staff from the hospital are there helping out to look after as many patients as they can. We are just waiting on the phone call for that start date, but thankfully things are a bit further on from this time last week. I know I am in the system and they are trying to get a plan in place.”
While the arrival of a functioning decryption key has been welcome, Charlotte said she stands by her comments that the government should be paying the ransom.
She said: “I still stand by what I said last week. We could have had the decryption key sooner if the money had been paid and we know it works – I was happy to take the risk anyway to take the option to pay for something which gets people seen to a lot quicker. If we didn’t have that key things would be an awful lot worse. For whatever reason they gave the key over we don’t know, but I’m just glad that they did.” Charlotte’s husband Jonathan said that although they are in the system for appointments, they are anxious about the timescale they now face. He said: “The problem for us is we don’t know long it will go on like this. We had a scan six weeks ago and we needed it to happen this week and if anything happens it could drag into next week.
“This is very urgent for us, even though we are in the system, we are still anxious wondering if these scans are going to happen this week or not.”