A cyberattack has disrupted the operations of five hospitals in southwestern Ontario, affecting their online services, including patient records and email access. The hospitals’ IT provider, TransForm, is actively investigating the incident to determine the cause and scope of the attack, with a particular focus on whether any patient data has been compromised.
As a result of the cyberattack, the affected hospitals are experiencing disruptions in providing patient care, leading to the rescheduling of appointments for patients in the coming days.
TransForm, a local non-profit organization responsible for IT, supply chain, and accounts for these hospitals, issued a statement acknowledging the impact of the incident on their ability to deliver healthcare services. Patient appointments are being rescheduled, and alternative arrangements will be made as the investigation unfolds.
While TransForm works to address the issue, its director of stakeholder relations, Michelle Watters, stated that the organization will not provide further comments at this time. The impacted hospitals have issued a joint statement advising patients not requiring emergency care to seek assistance from primary care providers or local clinics to reduce the impact on hospital services, emphasizing the need for caution and patience during this situation.
This development follows an earlier announcement by TransForm regarding the service outage affecting member hospitals and Windsor-Essex Hospice. The decision to take systems offline was made in response to abnormal performance activity.
Importantly, despite the service disruption, it was clarified that patient care remains unaffected by the outage. Patients visiting the hospital were advised to expect delays and use alternate contact methods, as the hospitals work to address the ongoing situation, with the exact timeline for system restoration remaining unclear. TransForm pledged to provide updates as their investigation into the cyberattack progresses.
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