As reported earlier a computer virus impacting operations at Sudbury’s Health Sciences North (HSN) has forced the cancellation of numerous clinics and treatments, delays in various departments and the rescheduling of some procedures, the virus affecting radiation treatments for patients at Sault Area Hospital (SAH).
“At this time, Sault Area Hospital is experiencing some disruption in service at our Algoma District Cancer Centre. The Algoma District Cancer Centre is a satellite clinic of the North East Cancer Centre at Health Sciences North. HSN’s technical difficulties are resulting in delays in treatment for some patients receiving radiation treatment,” wrote Brandy Sharp Young, SAH manager of communications and volunteer resources, in an email to SooToday.
“We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our patients. We are working closely with HSN to support them while their IT issues are being resolved. Once we are able to reconnect to HSN, we will notify our patients.”
“All other areas of SAH remain open and accessible to the public,” Sharp Young wrote.
HSN began noticing problems with its computer system at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
It has been confirmed a virus has affected the Sudbury hospital’s information technology system, IT experts currently working to fix the problem.
It is not known how the hospital’s IT systems became afflicted with the virus.
While HSN has said patient care is not impacted, wait times in that hospital’s emergency department will be longer, while certain elective procedures and surgeries in the next 24 to 48 hours could be rescheduled.