22 May 2021

Cyber attack at Waikato hospitals: Services down until at least next week

8:56 am on 22 May 2021

A full fix to the Waikato District Health Board's technology woes after its IT systems suffered a crippling cyberattack might not come until late next week.

Waikato Hospital

Photo: RNZ / Simon Rogers

A ransomware attack on Tuesday crashed Waikato District Health Board IT systems including computers and phones, affecting Waikato, Thames, Tokoroa, Te Kuiti and Taumaranui hospitals.

Waikato DHB chief executive Kevin Snee said the shutdown resulting from the ransomware attack will not be fixed until after the weekend, at the earliest.

"We'll certainly be running through next week I would think before we can get services back up and running in the way they have been previously."

Snee is urging people to come to the emergency department only if they need urgent care.

Snee earlier said that cyber experts were working to isolate the problem and reset individual computer systems as quickly as possible, but they were complex systems.

This week doctors at Waikato Hospital have been reverting to whiteboards and hard copy records to continue treating patients.

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