Levels of disruption to health services expected to be similar to last week

Following the recent serious cyber-attack on the HSE members of the public have been advised to report any suspicious calls, texts or other contacts from anyone seeking personal or banking details to the Gardai.

An Garda Síochána said they encourage people who have reason to suspect they are victims of cyber related crime, particularly the recent criminal cyber-attack of the HSE, to make a report on the Garda Confidential Line – 1800 666 111 or at their local Garda station

An Garda Síochána advised, “in general, our crime prevention advice has been and remains – if you are contacted by persons stating that they have your personal details and/or looking for bank account details you should not engage or provide any personal information.  If this does happen, we are encouraging people to report suspected breaches of personal data which will be examined by specialist investigators. Such reports will be handled in a sensitive manner.”

It important to note that state agencies, such as An Garda Síochána, the Health Service Executive, the Revenue Commissioner’s will not cold call you looking for personal information such as PPS numbers or bank account details.

If you received any communication like this:

– DO NOT engage with the caller

– DO NOT click on any links in emails or text messages

– Screenshot the email, text message or other communication.

Meanwhile levels of disruption to health services are expected to be similar to those seen last week as a result of the cyber security incident, the HSE has said.

In a recent update the Executive said that while progress was being made on the IT front, it would be some time before this translated into a restoration of services in very many cases.

According to the HSE, “progress continues to be made in some hospitals on restoring IT systems and some sites (at a local site level only) now have access to radiology, laboratories and their patient administration systems. But this is uneven across the country and levels of disruption this week are expected to be similar to those of last week.

Services around the country are continuing to see substantial disruption. We are urging people to check the HSE website service updates page before attending appointments. The information here is being updated on a regular basis. Some services, especially community services, and some primary care centres, are experiencing issues with phone lines.”

The HSE added that Emergency Departments were “very busy with high numbers of patient attendances. As always patients needing urgent care will be prioritised.

We ask the public again this week to consider all care options including Injury Units, GP Out of Hours and your local pharmacy in advance of attending Emergency Departments.”

For more information please see here