KAWARTHA LAKES-Some staff members at Ross Memorial Hospital say the suspected ransomware attack at the hospital has impacted their pay.
Kawartha 411 was contacted by a staff member reporting that some had not received proper pay for the hours worked for over a month. The staff, who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of their job said it is front-line staff, ie housekeeping, dietary, nursing, housekeeping, recreational therapy, and multiple departments that are impacted. They claim there has been minimal communication with staff from higher up about the situation. Staff say all hours logged were lost in the initial attack and have been offline ever since.
The hospital says staff is being paid.
“Ross Memorial Hospital has been operating under an emergency process for payroll since invoking an Information Technology Code Grey on February 5. The hospital has continued issuing paycheques on their scheduled dates and provided written communications explaining how the paycheques are being calculated. Any inaccurate paycheques are being addressed directly with the impacted staff.” said an email from the hospital this morning.
Kawartha 411 learned of the suspected ransomware attack Hospital from a patient who said it had disabled some important diagnostic systems and access to medical files calling the situation “crazy”. Patients say staff aren’t able to access the systems needed for treatment and they say even the parking machines aren’t working properly.
The Hospital declared a Code Grey at 10:53 p.m. on Sunday, February 5 due to a “suspected cybersecurity incident”.
A CODE Grey is used if the hospital experiences a loss of a utility resulting in the potential loss of use of the hospital facilities.
“The hospital has retained third-party cybersecurity resources to work with our technical experts to investigate the incident according to industry best practices,” said Ryan Young, Communications RMH after being contacted by Kawartha 411 at the time. “In the meantime, as high-quality patient care is our priority, we are managing our established protocols to maintain continued delivery of our critical hospital services. Our systems restoration plan is also ongoing, and we are communicating with our local, regional, and provincial partners regarding next steps.”
Read more here: https://www.kawartha411.ca/2023/02/07/suspected-ransomware-attack-disables-some-systems-at-ross-memorial-hospital/
Officials are urging patients with less urgent conditions are encouraged to consider alternate options for care such as their primary health care provider, pharmacist, after-hours clinic, virtual care, or by calling Telehealth Ontario at 1-866-797-0007. After-hours clinics can often treat non-urgent and minor illnesses and ailments, such as earaches, sore throats or prescription refills.
