Cyberattack: SingHealth Update on Patient Engagement

7/21/2018 9:00:00 AM |

The article is contributed/written by

Following the cyberattack, SingHealth has been progressively contacting all patients who visited its specialist outpatient clinics and polyclinics from 1 May 2015 to 4 July 2018 to notify them if their data had been illegally accessed and copied.

All patients who visited SingHealth clinics and polyclinics during this time period, whether or not their data was comprised, will receive an SMS notification1 from SingHealth. Patients can also use the Health Buddy mobile app or visit SingHealth website to check if they are affected. Both the mobile app and website require patients to login using their SingPass (2-Factor Authentication).

We apologise unreservedly to patients for the anxiety caused and will continue to do all that we can to reach out to them.

We would like to assure patients that no phone number, financial information or other patient medical records had been illegally accessed. The care that we provide to patients has not been affected.

To date:

SMS Notifications

• SingHealth has sent SMS notifications to more than 700,000 patients who visited its specialist outpatient clinics and polyclinics from 1 May 2015 to 4 July 2018. The remaining SMS notifications will continue to be sent over the next two days.

Data Check

• About 139,000 patients have accessed the Health Buddy mobile app and SingHealth website to check if they are affected by the cyberattack.

Letters

• About 150,000 patients who did not register their mobile numbers with SingHealth will receive letters informing them about this within 1 week.

Calls Received

• SingHealth has received more than 4,800 calls from patients and members of the public enquiring of the cyberattack.

Emails Received

• SingHealth has received close to 750 emails at [email protected] from patients checking on their status

Patients who are unable to do a data check (e.g. parents of young children with no SingPass accounts) via the Health Buddy mobile app or SingHealth website can email SingHealth at [email protected] to do a data check.

Members of the public and patients can also visit SingHealth’s Facebook (www.facebook.com/singhealth) for regular updates and alerts.

1 Patients who did not register their mobile phone numbers with SingHealth will be sent a letter informing them of this.