Waikato DHB Information Services cyber security event
Sunday, 23 May 2021
SECTOR UPDATE - Waikato District Health Board Waikato DHB and its five hospitals have functioned well and are coping with demand over the weekend. Good progress is continuing to be made in bringing systems back online following Tuesday’s cyberattack.
We expect this work to continue into the coming week and possibly beyond, while we restore our services using a carefully phased approach.
Patient safety and service remains the number one priority. Our services have enacted contingency plans to continue safe and appropriate care for patients during this time.
Waikato DHB Chief Executive Kevin Snee believes the DHB’s hospitals have suitable plans in place for the coming week for patient care.
“While we continue to resolve this situation, our staff have shown their ability to adapt to an unprecedented situation and keeping patient care at the front of mind,” he says.
“I want to thank our staff for their continued efforts to maintain the care and safety of our patients as well as those working to get the DHB’s systems operational again.”
There were 202 presentations to Waikato Hospital’s Emergency Department over the past 24 hours which is slightly higher than we have been experiencing over the past few days. However, this is still about 75 percent of normal activity. Staff were able to manage the workload, however we are still encouraging the public to keep all of our emergency departments for emergencies only.
Acute surgeries are progressing and planned elective surgeries are going ahead if they can be done safely.
As a result of the continued disruptions, it has unfortunately been necessary to cancel a number of specialty outpatient clinics. A list of these is available on the DHB website.
We are now planning for the recovery phase of this operation. This includes re-booking patients who have had their appointments deferred as well as a process for entering the patient information manually into our systems.
Our focus is on ensuring our patients receive the care they need as soon as possible. This could include additional weekend clinics or surgery, as well as support from other DHBs or from private providers.
This is a significant cyber security event, which will take some time to remediate and investigate. We have a substantial team of specialists working around the clock to bring the DHB’s services back.
Investigations into this type of cybersecurity event are challenging and complex. Waikato DHB continues to engage with experts across both the government and private sector including world-leading specialists.
Because of the nature of this incident, the DHB is not able to provide detailed comment as it is now under criminal investigation.
Key messages:
- Emergency Departments across all of our hospitals remain for emergencies only at this time. If you need immediate or urgent help, please continue to call 111. If it is not an emergency, please phone Healthline on 0800 611 116, visit your GP or local urgent care centre.
- The main number for external enquiries to Waikato DHB (0800 276 216) and the main DHB / hospital number (07 839 8899) are operational.
- Our phone lines are experiencing high volumes which may mean some callers experience delays or call drop-outs. If this happens, please keep trying. Our staff are working hard to answer every call.
Source: Waikato DHB media release Sector updates are provided by organisations to eHealthNews.nz and have not necessarily been edited or checked for accuracy. Any queries should be directed to the organisation issuing the release.
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