ANCONA Book (or cancel) a specialist visit or clinical exam by calling Cup? It seems easy, even more so now that the Marche Region has added a new number (071-9998010) to call from a landline or mobile phone and book services. It joins 0721-1779301 (always from landlines and mobiles) and the toll-free number 800098798, which as always works only from landlines. But this triple option is not enough to shorten the time required for a visit and exam booking system which, almost a month after the first hacker attack, is still suffering. So, to contact an operator on the phone, you have to queue.
What happen
And it can happen, as experienced both on Monday and yesterday, that as soon as you get on the line a recorded voice informs you that your position is number 103 and you have to be patient. How much? Even 16-17 minutes, obviously spent at the user’s expense, because calling landlines is not free. And there are those who have it even worse: «Yesterday to book a hematology visit, just before 4pm, I was 117th – says a patient – but after ten minutes the line went dead. When I called again, the service was down.” For Flavia Carle, the director of Ars Marche, the Cup is receiving a high number of requests which, in part, is due to the reservations that were not made during the days of the first cyber-attack and paralyzed the operating system on the 19th May returned to full capacity on the 23rd. Inconvenience repeated, but only for three hours of suspension, with the second threat (not addressed to the Cup) on Thursday 13th June. «The 180 telephone lines – he goes into detail – have in fact all returned to work but, to compensate for the increase in traffic, last week, we decided to add a second number for the landline and mobile network, 071-9998010 . Furthermore – he specifies – precisely to strengthen the screen at the entrance, we are reviewing the pharmacy authentication system and profiling them adequately will take time considering that the questions are duplicated”. Until now, 180 pharmacies were working in that channel, especially in the hinterland, which overall absorbed at least 9% of bookings. Now around 300 have signed up and around 1500 pharmacists have requested qualification.
Meconi: «New much more complex security system»
«The new security system – intervenes the president of Federfarma Marche Marco Meconi – will be much more complex but designed to better protect the data of patients and pharmacies. For the moment, while waiting for the new credentials, it is not possible to book visits via our network: the only way for the patient is to do it by telephone but we are obviously available to everyone for advice and help”. Precautions are more than necessary considering that the number of successful attacks in the healthcare sector in the EU has doubled in the last 4 years. In Italy, last year, cybercriminals threatened the Umbria region; stolen and demanded a ransom (unpaid) from the Verona hospital; in January, the IT systems and health network of Basilicata were targeted and on 10 May the ASL 1 Abruzzo. «In the Marche – repeat director Carle – only the operating system was touched and no data was stolen but with the GPI group which has the IT security of the Cup we are working to increase security and on the ability to accommodate the increasing demand. We are in a time of transition, give us time to build the highway we need.” While waiting, users arm themselves with patience. A lot.
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