Ireland

Hack of Republic's health IT system has had ‘catastrophic’ impact, says HSE chief

Health Service Executive (HSE) chief Paul Reid
Health Service Executive (HSE) chief Paul Reid Health Service Executive (HSE) chief Paul Reid

The head of the Republic's health service has described the “catastrophic” impact of a “stomach-churning” hack of its IT systems.

The number of appointments in some areas of the system has dropped by 80 per cent as health workers grapple with paper records while work continues to recover IT systems.

HSE chief executive Paul Reid criticised the ransomware attack as a “callous act” and an attack on health workers who have been working “relentlessly” through the coronavirus pandemic.

He told an HSE media briefing today that the response has been “comprehensive” since last Friday and will “continue to be relentless”.

However he said work to undo the damage will continue into the coming weeks.

“We are now in the assessment phase where we’re assessing all across the network… to understand the impacts across the network,” he said.

Mr Reid said there are 2,000 systems used by the health service and more than 4,500 servers.

“This is in essence the rebuilding of a legacy network of 30 years,” he said.

The briefing heard the impact on services included a reduction by 70 per cent - 80 per cent in outpatient appointments each day.