AHS Is Experiencing A 'Province-Wide Network Outage' & Services Could Be Impacted
Some non-urgent surgeries were rescheduled.
An AHS Health Centre.
Alberta Health Services is currently experiencing a network outage across the province and some services could be impacted as a result.
In a tweet, AHS initially said the province-wide outage was impacting the healthcare advice service 811 Health Link, which was not able to receive calls.
\u201cWe are currently experiencing a province-wide network outage which is impacting some services. 8-1-1 Health Link is unable to receive calls at this time. If you have an emergency, call 9-1-1.\n\nWe are working to restore service and will provide updates as soon as possible.\u201d— Alberta Health Services (@Alberta Health Services) 1674490195
The health service is currently working to resolve the issue as soon as possible, including restoring clinical IT services and full capacity for 811 Health Link, AHS added in an update.
EMS dispatch is using backup procedures, and the update also said that 911 calls are not affected by the outage.
They urged anyone experiencing a medical emergency to still contact 911.
\u201cAHS is working to restore clinical IT services as well as full capacity for 8-1-1 Health Link. In an emergency, please call 9-1-1. Downtime procedures are being used at sites as needed. Updates on the outage are available on a temporary AHS website: https://t.co/IB4Nfmq07r.\u201d— Alberta Health Services (@Alberta Health Services) 1674495560
Other teams across AHS are using downtime procedures, which are put in place if electronic systems are unavailable so patient care can be continued, it added.
811 Health Link services were available but with limited capacity.
At 2 p.m., AHS said the issues were being resolved and services are being "carefully restored" with priority given to critical care patient areas such as emergency departments.
811 Health Link was fully restored with wait times back to normal, it added but some AHS sites were continuing to use downtime procedures.
AHS added that some non-urgent surgeries were postponed "as a precaution" but emergency and urgent surgeries were still able to go ahead. They are currently in the process of rebooking impacted patients.
This is a developing story. Check back for more details.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.