Eastern Health Services Continue to be Affected by IT Systems Outage

November 1, 2021 – St. John’s, NL: Eastern Health is continuing to implement contingency plans and is focused on the delivery of emergency care as the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information (NLCHI) and Bell, in collaboration with the Department of Health and Community Services, work to resolve the outage that is affecting the province’s health-care related IT systems.

Emergency services only will proceed on Tuesday and Wednesday, November 2 and 3, 2021.

Patients and clients who have not been contacted directly, should assume that their appointments have been cancelled. Appointments are not being rescheduled at this time. Patients will be contacted directly once the IT system outage is resolved.

Patients who have questions regarding appointments, procedures and surgeries scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, November 2 and 3, 2021 may call the temporary patient inquiries line: 1-833-777-1276.

The following services continue to be available:

  • In-person dialysis at all locations throughout the region
  • Community-based services, including Home Support, Special Assistance Program and Direct Home Services
  • Mental Health and Addictions community counselling services
  • All Influenza and COVID-19 vaccination clinics
  • Maternal-Fetal Assessment Unit appointments

Email and Phone Systems

Email and some phone systems, including the Client Relations line, continue to be affected by this outage. Work is underway to restore phone service as soon as possible.

COVID-19 Tests for Burin Peninsula Residents

Residents of the Burin Peninsula who require retesting for COVID-19, as advised by public health due to the cluster in the Marystown area, and are not already booked should call 709-277-0624 from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. to book a COVID-19 testing appointment.

Appointments at Private Doctors’ Clinics

Patients who attend appointments at private doctors’ clinics are encouraged to check with those clinics directly.

Eastern Health Suppliers and Vendors

Payment processing for suppliers and vendors as well as email correspondence is affected. Those who currently receive payments via cheque are strongly encouraged to provide the required information for electronic funds transfer (EFT). EFT information can be mailed or dropped off to the following address: Eastern Health Business Office, Attention: Accounts Payable, 760 Topsail Road, Mount Pearl, NL, A1N 3J5. Suppliers and vendors can make inquiries via telephone to 709-752-4534.

Special Assistance Program (SAP)

SAP clients who require products on an emergency basis are asked to contact their case worker until the IT systems outage is resolved.

Eastern Health thanks the public for their patience, recognizing that many services, including those in Emergency Departments, may experience unexpected or unavoidable delays, as Eastern Health staff work to adjust processes to ensure patient safety.

We are committed to keeping the public informed about this unanticipated disruption in services. Updates with 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: 2021-11-01