KAWARTHA LAKES-When Linda Dyson started getting strange text messages following a visit to Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay she became concerned.
Dyson had visited the hospital for tests this spring. Her husband dropped her off and picked her up, so she didn’t pay for parking. Nor did she purchase anything while there.
So when she received a text message in July stating she hadn’t finished up an Interac transaction while at the hospital she knew it was a scam. Dyson called the hospital who she says confirmed it wasn’t legitimate and said they had received a number of other complaints. They promised a call back but none was received. Dyson later emailed the hospital with her concerns. On July 31, 2025 Ryan Young, Communications and Public Affairs Officer at Ross Memorial emailed Dyson back to say he needed time to investigate whether her medical records could have been inappropriately accessed. As of September 29 she had not heard from Young again.
Since then Dyson has received additional texts including one on September 29. All from different numbers with with similar wording.
“I do not live in the City of Kawartha Lakes anymore… so the information that I was at Ross Memorial Hospital at that time, along with my full name and phone number was something that had to have been leaked by the hospital. What other information was leaked is still ongoing. Was my medical information included?”
Dyson says she asked the hospital to put out a press release warning others about the potential data breach but to no avail.
“How many others have either fallen victim to the “click the link” scam, or have had their personal information leaked? He (Young) didn’t know that either. In my opinion, this information leak has been handled very badly.. or not at all. I feel the hospital is sweeping it under the rug…. And it shouldn’t be.” said Dyson. ” I trusted the hospital with my utmost personal information. I was left vulnerable to these scammers. Them not taking accountability feels like a betrayal of that trust.”
We have reached out to Ross Memorial Hospital and are awaiting a response.
In a similar incident in February 2023 a ransomware attack hit Ross Memorial Hospital disabling some important diagnostic systems and access to medical files.
Patients in the Emergency Department notified Kawartha 411 at the time 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.
Read our full story here: https://www.kawartha411.ca/2023/02/07/suspected-ransomware-attack-disables-some-systems-at-ross-memorial-hospital/
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. “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.”
Officials determined that a number of hospital systems – including its legacy MediPatient database – were so severely impacted by the Incident (through encryption and/or corruption), that some of its applications and data were rendered unusable.
