Ongoing impact of ransomware attack on hospital services at Sligo University Hospital

The ransomware attack on the HSE IT systems continues to have a considerable impact on hospital services at Sligo University Hospital.

Gráinne McCann, General Manager at Sligo University Hospital said, “Work continued over the weekend to get priority systems back up and running including radiology, diagnostic/laboratory and patient information systems. We need to have these systems back working fully in order to resume all hospital services.

“We are not yet in a position to resume outpatient appointments, apart from maternity outpatient appointments.

“Most elective inpatient and day case procedures remain cancelled. A small number procedures will go ahead this week, particularly if they are time-dependent or if they don’t require laboratory or radiology services, and we will contact the patients directly in that event.

“Patients attending the Emergency Department are facing extremely long delays as the radiology and laboratory systems are not up and running. Essential services like blood tests and diagnostic services are taking much longer to operate than usual, using manual processes, which is significantly increasing turnaround times for patients. Patients needing urgent care will be prioritised. We ask patients to contact their GP or GP Out Of Hours Service in the first instance if their health problem is not urgent.

“Currently maternity services, dialysis treatment, chemotherapy treatment and physiotherapy appointments are going ahead.

“We would like to thank all our patients and their families for their support at this difficult time and apologise for the current disruptions and delays.”

Overview of current hospital disruptions:

CANCELLATIONS

·         Diagnostics including X-ray, CT scans, MRI appointments.

·         Elective inpatient and day case procedures.

A number of procedures may go ahead and these patients will be contacted directly.

Patients are asked not to come to the hospital unless contacted directly.

OUTPATIENT CLINICS

·         Most outpatient clinics are cancelled. A small number of appointments may go ahead and these patients will be contacted directly.

·         Maternity antenatal clinics are going ahead.

MATERNITY SERVICES

All maternity services including antenatal scanning and colposcopy are going ahead.

DIALYSIS

Patients should attend their dialysis appointments unless contacted and advised otherwise.

CHEMOTHERAPY

Patients should attend their chemotherapy treatments unless contacted and advised otherwise.

Ongoing updates on service disruptions will be provided on hse.ie and on saolta.ie