Melbourne Hospital Attacked By Computer Virus; Staff Manually Process Everything To Continue The Operation

Melbourne Health, which manages the Royal Melbourne Hospital, has been attacked by a computer virus. But despite the setback, all of the staff are still working manually to continue on providing convenience for the patients.

One of Victoria's largest hospital networks, it is still on the process of repairing its computer system after a virus infected its Windows XP computers and greatly affected its pathology department. Hence, all of the staff are now processing everything manually, including the specimen samples and entry of results.

Since the medical facility is processing everything manually, only urgent pathology specimens would be prioritized for the time being and the results will be sent through fax machine to avoid any delays. As for the hospital's food service, nurses are now working hard to ensure that the meals will be delivered on a timely manner to the right patients.

While the virus caused great disruption to the hospital, the medical facility also warned its staff not to open any password- protected sites such as Facebook, Gmail and bank accounts. This advisory was initiated as the virus could impose risks to the employees' personal information and identities.

Talking about the possible solution of the hospital to address the matter, Associate Professor Denise Heinjus, executive director of Nursing Services and Allied Health, sent an email to The Age on Monday, Jan.18 and said, "Patient safety has always been our highest priority and has been maintained... Elective surgeries and outpatient appointments are continuing as normal."

The spokesperson, however, undisclosed further details about the virus, including when they first discovered it, as well as how long they have been trying to fix the problem. "We are working to fix this issue as quickly as possible. As soon as the virus has been removed, we will investigate how it came to infect Melbourne Health," she continued.

Meanwhile, the health network's website is still inaccessible.