Limited resumption of services at hospital

PROGRESS has been made to restore some hospital services at Sligo University Hospital following the recent ransomware attack on the HSE IT systems.

Hospital Manager Gráinne McCann said work is ongoing to get essential systems such as radiology, diagnostic/laboratory and patient information back functioning fully.

“Even though we do not have all systems back, we are in a position to resume a limited number of services on a phased basis,” she said.

This week has been going ahead with some planned surgery and patients are being contacted directly. A number of outpatient clinics have also recommenced and more clinics will resume on a phased basis. Patients are being contacted directly if their appointments are going ahead.

Diagnostics, including X-ray, CT scans and MRI appointments, will resume on a phased basis and patients are being contacted by the hospital if their appointment is going ahead.

Ms McCann said: “We have been able to keep our maternity services, dialysis appointments, physiotherapy appointments and chemotherapy treatments going throughout the IT systems outage and patients should continue to come to their appointments for these services. “Unfortunately, patients attending the Emergency Department are still facing extremely long delays because essential services like blood tests and diagnostic services are taking much longer than usual.

She said they were working to reschedule the cancelled appointments as soon as possible.

“This will take time particularly as the systems are still not back to a level that will allow us to resume normal service. I would like to thank all our patients and their families for their support and understanding throughout these disruptions and delays,” she said.