Windsor Regional Hospital to resume curative radiation treatments in wake of cyberattack

Windsor Regional Hospital has announced that some curative radiation treatments have resumed at the hospital's cancer centre.

A release issued Tuesday states "Windsor Regional Hospital has been working with IT experts and radiation treatment platform providers on trying to implement a safe and reliable service to resume operation of curative radiation treatments while addressing other issues caused by the cyberattack that began on Oct. 23, 2023.

Since Monday Nov. 6, 2023, Windsor Regional Hospital has been able to safely resume some curative radiation treatments." 

The statement goes on to say that WRH's team, the IT experts and application specialists have been working non-stop and will continue to do so safely until we return to normal operations.

Until normal volumes resume, the hospital is still working with Ontario Health and other cancer centre organizations to transfer patients for their care, as well as to address any new referrals for radiation care.

Patients requiring systemic (chemotherapy and related services) are being treated both within WRH, and plans have been established to access additional capacity in other centres, if needed.

Financial support continues to be available for travel and accommodation costs.

Bluewater Health, Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, Erie Shores HealthCare in Leamington, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare and Windsor Regional Hospital, and their shared service provider TransForm Shared Service Organization, were the victims of a ransomware attack on Oct. 23.

Bluewater Health in Sarnia was hit the hardest with the stolen information covering about approximately 5.6 million patient visits made by approximately 267,000 unique patients.

Windsor Regional Hospital reports a very limited portion of a shared drive used by hospital staff was accessed by the attackers.

The preliminary review indicates that in the shared drive that was breached, some patients were identified by name only or some with a brief summary of their medical condition but not with any patient charts/electronic medical records.

While it does appear that information pertaining to employees was affected to some degree, WRH has reached the preliminary conclusion that no employee or professional staff social insurance numbers or banking information were affected. 

A band of cyber-criminals called ‘Daixin Team’ is claiming to be the group responsible for the cyber attack but a ransom was not paid.

Data connected to the ransomware attack has been published on the internet.

The teams continue to work around the clock to restore systems at all of the impacted hospitals. 

A patient cybersecurity hotline has been established. For inquiries please call: 519-437-6212 (8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday).