There may be some delays as local hospitals are affected by a global IT outage

Some services in the Waterloo region are being impacted by a global IT outage affecting Microsoft programs.

Grand River Hospital and St. Mary’s General Hospital have been affected by the problem, but emergency services are still available.

If you need urgent assistance, you are advised to call 112 or go to the nearest emergency room.

Victoria Ott, the hospital’s Integrated Director of Strategic Engagement, wrote in an email to CTV News that most clinical services are still operating, but there may be delays.

Meanwhile, the impact of the outage at Guelph General Hospital is considered minimal. Officials said patient care has not been affected at this time.

Cambridge Memorial Hospital is experiencing a similar level of minimal disruption. Representatives there said only one application was affected and they were able to move to a redundant server with no changes to patient care.

Brant Community Healthcare System confirmed that Brantford General Hospital and the Willett Urgent Care Centre in Paris, Ont., were also affected by the outage, but the system’s vice president of strategy, quality, risk and communications, Elena Lukich, said both locations are open and fully operational as staff work to restore some of their IT systems. Patients may experience minimal delays.

As the situation develops, more information is expected.

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has said the issue is not related to a security incident or cyberattack. The problems began when a faulty update was sent to computers running Microsoft Windows.