November 6, 2021 – St. John’s, NL: Eastern Health advises that it is proceeding with radiation therapy treatments for cancer patients starting this evening, Saturday, November 6, 2021, following confirmation from the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information (NLCHI) that the IT system for radiation oncology is now functional. The IT system for oncology is used by staff of the Cancer Care Program to communicate, document, plan, order and deliver cancer care services to the residents of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Radiation therapy patients are being contacted directly to have their appointment scheduled based on clinical priority, with the most urgent patients being contacted first. Appointments will continue to be booked into next week and some treatments may occur after hours.
Appointments for chemotherapy have been safely proceeding at a reduced capacity since November 4, 2021 and into the weekend given the reliance on supporting IT systems. Appointments are also continuing to be scheduled for the week of November 8, 2021, and some treatments may occur after hours.
Patients are advised to answer unknown telephone numbers as it may be your health-care team calling to schedule an appointment.
Staff at Eastern Health’s Cancer Care Program continue to work through contingency plans and patients with clinic appointments will be called directly if their appointments are proceeding.
Routine Cancer Screening is currently not available, and a further update will be provided.
Eastern Health remains focused on emergency and urgent services in acute care facilities, as well, some services, that do not rely on IT systems required for blood collection and medical imaging services, will proceed Sunday, November 7, 2021 and Monday, November 8, 2021. Patients and clients will be contacted directly if their appointment is going ahead. If patients and clients have not been contacted directly, they should assume that their appointments have been cancelled. Eastern Health is working through a process to reschedule appointments based on clinical priority, and is starting to work on scheduling some surgeries and procedures that can be performed safely.
Community-based services continue to be available through our community offices as well as chemotherapy appointments at reduced capacity and some mental health and addictions services, including DoorWays walk-in counselling services. For a list of services affected, patients can visit the IT Systems Outage webpage at www.easternhealth.ca/it-systems-outage/service-impacts/ for up-to-date service information. Patients who have questions regarding appointments, procedures and surgeries scheduled for this time period may call the temporary patient inquiries line: 1-833-777-1276.
Eastern Health remains focused on health-care delivery while supporting the ongoing work of the NLCHI as they work with others to resolve the IT systems outage and bring clinical systems back online in a safe and controlled manner. Services will resume gradually as work continues to restore full functionality, including integration with other applications.
Eastern Health recognizes the impacts to patients, clients and residents and we apologize for the inconvenience.
We also thank the public for their continued patience, recognizing that many services may experience unexpected or unavoidable delays, as Eastern Health staff work diligently to adjust processes to ensure patient safety.
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