Clare patients to see ULHG appointments restored on phased basis

SCHEDULED Care is being restored on a phased basis across the UL Hospitals’ Group as systems recover from last month’s devastating cyber attack, writes Dan Danaher.
This announcement comes after the Mid-West Public Health Department confirmed there were 82 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Clare, 510 in Limerick, and 45 in North Tipperary over the past two weeks.
On June 21, there were 13 confirmed cases in Limerick, eight in Clare and none in North Tipperary.
Outpatient appointments, day case and inpatient surgery, endoscopy and other investigations are being gradually restored at University Hospital Limerick, Ennis Hospital, Nenagh Hospital, Croom Orthopaedic Hospital and St John’s Hospital.
University Maternity Hospital Limerick was less severely impacted by the cyber attack, and services there continue to operate at the levels prior to the attack of May 14.
All patients whose appointment or procedure is going ahead will be contacted directly by the hospital in advance.
More than 10,000 outpatient appointments, operations and investigations were cancelled across the six hospitals in the first three weeks following the cyber attack.
Local and national information technology teams have made progress in recent weeks in restoring some of the group’s most critical patient information systems.
The group has also made progress on the backlog of data entry for emergency and time-critical patients they have continued to see in the weeks following the cyber attack through the use of manual workarounds.

We are gradually restoring services across our hospitals following the recent #CyberAttack

For the latest updates on hospital appointments, visit: https://t.co/P6Jjnej66z pic.twitter.com/KqWE0s9XyB

— UL Hospitals (@ULHospitals) June 22, 2021

Progress made on the backlog and in restoring essential systems has allowed thems to now safely stand up scheduled care.
However, the cyber attack continues to have an adverse impact across the health service; recovery will be uneven across services and sites and delays remain across many areas of the service.
The Emergency Department at University Hospital Limerick remains very busy with record attendances in recent weeks. Members of the public are reminded to consider all care options such as GP, GP out-of-hours, pharmacy, Injury Unit, and only attend the ED in an emergency.
Injury Units are open seven days a week. Injury Units in Ennis Hospital and Nenagh Hospital are open from 8am to 8pm and St John’s Hospital from 8am to 7pm.
Noreen Spillane, Chief Operations Officer, UL Hospitals Group, said the cyber attack has caused severe disruption in recent weeks.
“Teams, with the support of the HSE nationally, continue the painstaking work of restoring our systems and the impact of this event will continue to be felt for months to come.
“However, it is encouraging that the work done to date in prioritising the most important clinical and patient information systems has allowed us to gradually and safely restore services for patients.
“The group are also working to reschedule patients cancelled over the last month as soon as possible. Due to the pandemic, our hospitals were already operating a reduced level of scheduled care prior to the cyber attack.
“This act has only added to the distress of our patients and staff and we are working with the HSE nationally on a number of initiatives to improve access to care and make up for lost time as we recover from the cyber attack and seek to exit the pandemic.”