2023-11-01 02:08:40
The personal data of patients at five Ontario hospitals is at risk after a cyberattack forced the rescheduling of many appointments, including for patients undergoing cancer treatments.
The non-profit Transform, which manages IT services at five hospitals in the Windsor area, confirmed Tuesday that a computer attack carried out last week puts patients at risk.
“We determined during our investigation that, unfortunately, the personal data of some patients, employees and professionals was stolen. It is possible that the actors responsible for this attack will publish some of the stolen data,” Transform lamented in a press release.
Consequences in oncology
The computer attack launched on October 23 partially paralyzed the computer systems of Bluewater Health, Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, Erie Shores HealthCare, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare and Windsor Regional Hospital. This attack notably led to headaches for patient appointments, with several having to be moved.
Windsor Regional Hospital confirmed on Tuesday, alongside the release of Transform, that it was having difficulty resuming treatment of its cancer patients. A week after the cyberattack, specialists are still working to find a solution to be able to use the machines in radiotherapy.
In the meantime, the hospital is trying to find other hospitals that can receive its radiotherapy patients. Some of the patients receiving chemotherapy also had to migrate to other hospitals.
Hospital managers stressed that financial assistance is available for patients forced to move to other hospitals.
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