Hospital services across the West and North West will face ongoing service disruptions into next week as a result of the ransomware attack on the HSE IT systems. Work is ongoing to get priority systems back including radiology, diagnostic and patient information systems which are essential for the delivery of safe care.
Seán Murphy, General Manager at Letterkenny University Hospital said, “Steady progress is being made in getting vital clinical systems back up and running. This has to be done in a very safe way and we anticipate it will take a number of weeks.
“For now maternity services, dialysis treatment, chemotherapy treatment, colposcopy and physiotherapy appointments are going ahead.
“Unfortunately we are not in a position to resume outpatient appointments, elective inpatient or day case procedures. A small number of these appointments may go ahead if they are time-dependent or if they don’t require laboratory or radiology services. In these cases we will contact the patients directly to confirm that their appointment will go ahead. Where possible, patients should bring a current list of medications or prescriptions with them.
“We recognise how difficult these disruptions are for patients particularly those who have been waiting a long time for an appointment and we would like to thank patients and their families for their ongoing support at this time.
“We are working hard to find interim solutions and options so that we can reintroduce some services as soon as possible. As services resume, we will contact patients to let them know and we will update hospital service information on hse.ie and saolta.ie.”
Overview of current hospital disruptions:
CANCELLATIONS
· Outpatient clinics (apart from Maternity clinics and physiotherapy) are cancelled
· Diagnostics including x-ray, CT scans, MRI appointments are cancelled.
· Endoscopy services are cancelled.
· Elective inpatient and day case procedures are cancelled.
Patients are asked not to come to the hospital unless contacted. A small number of procedures may go ahead and these patients will be contacted directly.
MATERNITY SERVICES
All maternity services including antenatal scanning are going ahead.
The patient records system is not currently accessible which means that clinical staff are unable to contact new patients. Women who are awaiting their first antenatal appointment or their first dating scan are asked to call 074 912 3513 to arrange an appointment date and time.
DIALYSIS
Patients should attend their dialysis appointments unless contacted and advised otherwise.
COLPOSCOPY and PHYSIOTHERAPY
Colposcopy and physiotherapy appointments are going ahead.
CHEMOTHERAPY
Patients should attend their chemotherapy appointments unless contacted and advised otherwise.
INR CLINIC
Patients who are taking warfarin medication and have concerns about checking their INR are asked to telephone 074 910 4473 between 10am and 12noon on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for advice.
EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT
The Emergency Department is still open for all emergencies. Patients needing urgent care will be prioritised. Patients can expect significant delays in the Emergency Department as existing IT systems are not in use and the manual workarounds in place are time-consuming. We ask patients to contact their GP or GP Out Of Hours Service in the first instance if their health problem is not urgent.
Ongoing updates on service disruptions will be provided on hse.ie and on saolta.ie.
