‘Really good progress’ in last 72 hours in restoring key HSE systems – Reid

The HSE has made "really good progress" in restoring key national systems including radiotherapy and patient administration since the cyber attack two weeks ago on the health service's IT systems, according to chief executive Paul Reid.

He said that 26 out of 32 radiology sites are now up and running and hospitals can now see patients’ administration data, are starting to see CT scans and more out-patient services are being re-established.

But he warned that there were 10 systems the health service is prioritising for resumption “there are 2,000 systems in total that we have to bring up safely” and it would still take “weeks” to restore them in full.

However “we will start to see a snowball effect where more systems are coming up more services can be restored at a quicker pace”.

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Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week programme Mr Reid also confirmed “we are aiming to have 2.5 million of the people fully vaccinated by the end of July”.

He said that close to 2.7 million vaccines had been administered and “possibly today, certainly by tomorrow 50 per cent of the population – 1.9 million – will have received a dose one and 20 per cent will be fully vaccinated”.

He said that 300,000 people were vaccinated last week, 280,000 this week and 300,000 are expected to receive a jab the following week, he said.

Two weeks after a complete shutdown of IT services following a cyber attack on the health service, Mr Reid said “we have made really good progress in the last 72 hours in particular”.

“A lot of our key national systems we’re making great progress on. So for example our radiotherapy for oncology cancer [we are making] strong progress with the key main sites up and running, and similarly for our patient administration system.”

But it would be continued slow progress because while they get the systems up it takes time to restore the services.

The focus in the coming week will be on the endoscopy and some community systems, Mr Reid added. But “there is still a high risk that as you bring up one system you contaminate another”.

Following confirmation that the details of 520 patients’ cases had been released, Mr Reid confirmed the process of contacting those individuals was ongoing and the health service was also working with the Data Protection Commission, An Garda Síochána and regulatory authorities on the issue.

Vaccinations

Speaking about the vaccination programme he said close to 2.7 million vaccines and “possibly today, certainly by tomorrow 50 per cent of the population – 1.9 million – will have received a dose one and 20 per cent will be fully vaccinated.

He said that 300,000 people were vaccinated last week, 280,000 this week and 300,000 are expected to receive a jab the following week, he said.

The vaccination programme is working to protect the most vulnerable he added because last week 88 per cent of cases were among those under 45 with no outbreaks in nursing homes.

He said “we’ve almost 100 per cent of the population over 80 now vaccinated, over 96 per cent of 70-79-year-olds have received their jabs, and over 90 per cent of 60-69 year-olds”.

Asked whether people waiting 12 weeks for a second dose would be offered an alternative Mr Reid based on predictive supplies “we are targeting all the AstraZeneca we get now for dose two” and “we do see supply lines adequate for dose two”.

People in the age 60-69 bracket who have received a first dose of AstraZeneca have complained that they would be less protected and at greater risk for longer than other age cohorts receiving alternatives.

Mr Reid said any change to another vaccine would be a policy matter for Government and recommendation from the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac).