Cyberattack at 5 southwestern Ontario hospitals leaves patients awaiting care

As five southwestern Ontario hospitals grapple with a cyberattack they say has caused delays, some patients and their families say they've been left waiting for hours and had procedures cancelled. 

Tianna Giesbrecht says she arrived at the Windsor Regional Hospital's Met campus by ambulance around 5 p.m. Monday for what she suspects is a problem with her appendix. She says she was still waiting by 2 p.m. Tuesday and was later seen that evening. 

Speaking to a CBC reporter via Facebook Messenger, Giesbrecht says people waiting with her in the hospital have left without being seen. Staff, she says, are using paper records and seem "frustrated."

"It's extremely frustrating knowing that our hospitals aren't better equipped against this sort of thing," Giesbrecht said, noting she works in IT. 

"Plus it's scary to think of how many people are in pain and needing help and we just sit here waiting."

Online services such as patient records and email have been down since Monday morning at the five hospitals — Windsor Regional Hospital, Erie Shores HealthCare, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, Bluewater Health and the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance.

The five impacted hospitals are not providing comment on Tuesday. 

The hospitals released a statement Monday night saying that they would be contacting those with care scheduled in the coming days to reschedule or provide other arrangements.

"Also, we would continue to ask if you are not needing emergency care to attend your primary care provider or local clinic to reduce the impact upon the hospitals as we work towards addressing these issues and focus on those needing hospital care," the hospitals said in a joint statement

"Unfortunately, we may not be able to reach all patients, and we request your understanding if we are required to reschedule care in person at our facilities," the statement said. 

The systems affected are provided by TransForm, a non-profit founded by the hospitals to run IT, supply chain and accounts, according to the organization's website. 

The company confirmed Monday night its hospitals are experiencing a cyberattack. TransForm said its investigating the "cause and scope of incident, including whether any patient information was affected."

It also says it is working from a back-up system but it can take time to access documents. 

Karen Churcher says her husband, Barry Cox, is currently at Bluewater Health in Sarnia. He's been in the hospital for two weeks awaiting a cardioversion — a procedure that helps restore normal heart rhythms to abnormally beating hearts —  that was cancelled Tuesday morning.