The Clinical Director of St Luke's Radiation Oncology Network in Dublin has said all of its category one patients, or time dependent patients, have been able to receive treatment from today, after some of its machinery was enabled.
Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, Dr Clare Faul said many of their services had been significantly affected by last week's cyber attack on the HSE.
She said the network had been able to partially treat patients since Monday afternoon, and that an additional machine was back up and running from today.
This has resulted in a "minimal break in the treatment of patients" due to the disruption caused by the cyber attack, she said, adding that it is "fantastic news".
Meanwhile, people are being urged not to attend hospital emergency departments unless absolutely necessary as the impact of the cyber attack continues to be felt.
The HSE was forced to shut down all of its IT systems following the "significant" ransomware attack, which focused on accessing data stored on central servers.
In a statement this afternoon, the Health Service Executive said emergency departments across the system are very busy.
It said patients needing urgent care will be prioritised, but others may experience long delays due to the IT issues and manual work arrangements.
People who do need to go to an emergency department are asked to bring any information with them that can help medical staff as patient administrations systems cannot be accessed.
This can include a Medical Record Number or a Patient Chart Number, as well as a list of current medications or prescriptions or any hospital discharge information from a previous hospital visit.
Anyone who needs non-urgent medical care is asked to consider visiting Injury Units, GP Out of Hours services or a local pharmacy.
The HSE said the ransomware attack has "had a significant impact on hospital appointments and there continues to be major disruptions".
However, it added that work is continuing in assessing the impact and restoring IT systems.
"This work will take many weeks and we anticipate major disruption will continue due to the shutdown of our IT systems. We should start to see some early signs of recovery in some sites over the coming days.
"Our priority is to bring back key patient care systems in line with clinical priority and to keep our patients safe while maintaining essential care and support services."
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The HSE said good progress has been made in relation to rebuilding the NIMIS (national integrated medical imaging system for CT scans, X-rays and MRI scans), which is a "high immediate priority".
Progress is also being made on getting servers cleaned, restored and back online, in line with the "pace we had anticipated, and is a stepped, methodical process, to mitigate the risk of re-infection," the HSE said.
It added that while it is believed some details of recent clinical activity will be lost, "we anticipate that we will be able to recover older patient records".
INMO says members working 'half-blind'
Earlier, the General Secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation said its members cannot guarantee the provision of full and safe healthcare until the IT system is fully back up and running.
Phil Ní Sheaghdha said that along with Covid-19 concerns, it is "like working half-blind" as nurses are dependent on IT systems for blood results, booking systems and patient histories.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, she said while what happened was clearly an "opportunistic ... criminal" matter, the HSE needs to explain whether everything was done to prevent it.
Ms Ní Sheaghdha said the INMO has raised concerns with the Department of Health about what staff information has been compromised by the cyber attack and expressed concern that some staff were still working off Windows 7 and older systems.
Delays to CervicalCheck programme following attack
Meanwhile, the cyber attack has resulted in some delays to the CervicalCheck screening programme.
In a communication to GPs, seen by RTÉ News, the Irish Medical Organisation said GP sample takers are asked to defer all screening appointments booked from yesterday up to Friday, while the safety of processes along the screening pathway are checked.
GPs have also been advised to reassure patients that it is safe to wait a little longer for their screening test and that there may be a delay in receiving the screening test results of screened patients.
CervicalCheck said that some screening appointments may be changed this week and that GPs will phone the patient if their appointment changes.
It said that it is safe to wait a few weeks for a new appointments.
CervicalCheck said that it was continuing to receive and process screening samples but there may be a delay in people getting their test results.
The HSE said that the National Screening Services have advised that BreastCheck and Bowelscreen will continue unimpeded.
