AHS postpones elective surgeries amid Alberta-wide network outage
CTV
Alberta Health Services is postponing some elective surgeries as a province-wide network outage continues to impact some services.
Alberta Health Services (AHS) says it is postponing some elective surgeries as a province-wide network outage continues to impact some services.
AHS says EMS dispatch is functioning with "back-up procedures" and calls to 911 are not affected, but Health Link 811 is only available in a limited capacity and will see longer wait times than usual.
In an emergency, people should continue to call 911.
A senior official with AHS says doctors and staff at hospitals are using paper charts, whiteboards and phone calls to communicate with each other.
Dr. Sid Viner, vice-president and medical director for clinical operations with AHS, says the computer systems are largely down in hospitals. Just before noon, AHS announced it was postponing some elective, non-urgent surgeries until the outage is resolved.
All impacted patients will be contacted directly, and procedures will be "rebooked as soon as possible," said officials.
Emergency and urgent surgeries are continuing.
