Eastern Health Updates on Resumption of Acute Care Services

November 26, 2021 – St. John’s, NL: Eastern Health advises that a number of acute services that were previously impacted by the province-wide IT outage are continuing to resume. Progress continues with many program areas able to resume services at full capacity. Patients and clients are advised that periodic service interruptions are anticipated as systems are gradually brought online.

Medical Imaging:

  • As of November 26, 2021, all appointments for Medical Imaging are proceeding as scheduled, including: MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), CT scan (Computed Tomography), ultrasound, mammography, X-ray, nuclear medicine, PET scan (Positron Emission Tomography) and BMD (bone mineral densitometry). Patients with scheduled appointments (as of Friday, November 26) can proceed to their appointments.

Online Booking: Blood collection at Major’s Path Clinic, St. John’s

Echocardigram:

  • Appointments have resumed and patients will be contacted directly to schedule echocardiogram appointments at the Health Sciences Centre and rural health-care sites.

Cardiac/Critical Care services:

  • Patients scheduled for appointments or procedures, including appointments in the Cardiac Cath Lab at the Health Sciences Centre from Monday, November 29 to Friday, December 3, 2021, will be contacted directly to confirm their appointment.

Regional Surgical services:

  • Patients scheduled for appointments or procedures from Monday, November 29 to Friday, December 3, 2021, will be contacted directly to confirm their appointment.

Endoscopy services:

  • Patients will be notified regarding their appointments.

Other previously announced services that have resumed include:

  • Chemotherapy appointments: Chemotherapy appointments are proceeding at full capacity. For appointments in St. John’s, patients will be contacted directly with their appointment. For appointments in Gander, Grand Falls-Windsor, and Corner Brook, patients should follow their regular schedules as previously provided.
  • Radiation therapy treatment appointments: Radiation therapy treatments are proceeding at full capacity. Patients should follow their regular schedule.
  • Clinic appointments, Provincial Cancer Care Program: All clinic appointments are proceeding as previously scheduled. These include physician, social work, dietitian, and pharmacy appointments.
  • Please note that the cancer care program is now able to accept telephone messages. To speak to a member of the cancer care team, please call 709-777-6480. Patients are also advised to answer unknown telephone numbers as it may be your health-care team calling to schedule an appointment.
  • In addition, cancer patient navigators are located across the province to support patients and their families, and help to access services. To contact a cancer patient navigator, please call: 1-855-848-3888 (toll-free).
  • Children and Women’s Health services: Appointments have resumed at the Janeway Children’s Health and Rehabilitation Centre, as well as women’s health clinics at the Health Sciences Centre. Patients will be notified regarding their appointments.
  • Out-patient ambulatory services: Patients will be notified regarding their appointments.
  • Outpatient blood collection and inpatient laboratory services.
  • Mental Health and Addictions Services, Doorways and counselling services.
  • All Influenza and COVID-19 vaccination clinics.
  • Community-based services through our community offices.

Eastern Health staff are working diligently to reschedule any missed appointments since October 30, 2021.

Patients and clients are being contacted directly if their appointment is going ahead including those who need to travel a long distance for their appointment. If patients and clients have not been contacted directly, they should assume that their appointments have been cancelled. Please note that some exceptions apply regarding contacting patients directly for appointments. Please refer to the additional information on the Medical Imaging Program and the Provincial Cancer Care Program for more information about these exceptions.

For a list of up-to-date service information, patients can visit the IT Systems Outage webpage at www.easternhealth.ca/it-systems-outage/service-impacts/. 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 (Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.).

We also thank the public for their continued patience, recognizing that many services have experienced unexpected or unavoidable delays. Eastern Health recognizes the impacts to patients, clients and residents and we apologize for the inconvenience.

Please know that thousands of people working in our health-care sector are working diligently, despite a difficult situation, to ensure the delivery of health-care services. We ask that you show kindness to our many employees and clinicians who are committed to providing the best care possible to the residents of this province during this unprecedented time.

We are committed to keeping the public informed about this unanticipated disruption in services. Updates will be provided as information becomes available via Eastern Health’s website at www.easternhealth.ca and social media platforms, Facebook (www.facebook.com/EasternHealthNL) and Twitter (@EasternHealthNL).

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Last updated: 2021-11-26