The Republic of Ireland’s health service was recently hit by a “catastrophic” hack of its IT systems.
In an official note, the Republic of Ireland’s Department of Health stated: “At the moment, the Department of Health is assessing the impact of the recent cyber-attack in terms of systems and data affected.
“A Departmental Cyber Response Team has been meeting regularly, with the aim of restoring the essential work of the department as quickly and safely as possible.”
With appointment numbers in some areas having dropped by 80% since the hack, the BBC has reported that health workers are attempting to continue with paper records whilst IT recovery work continues.
In response to the attack, Minister for Communications, Eamon Ryan, said: “We are going to establish a helpline, a confidential crimeline-type system, where people, if they are approached – and we have to be careful about some of the rumours around this, it’s full of subterfuge and all sorts of unknown – by anyone claiming that they have medical or other relevant data, we will provide a crimeline where they can get secure advice in terms of what they need to do.”
The HSE are regularly updating their website with updates on health service disruptions.