The attack left the DHB having to employ hundreds of additional IT experts as it attempted to rebuild all its systems.
The outage affected Waikato Hospital and outlying hospitals in Thames, Taumarunui, Tokoroa and Te Kuiti.
The hackers sent threats to the DHB demanding money, but the DHB refused.
Instead staff have been relying on manual systems including handwriting patient notes as they continue to treat as many patients as they can.
Last week, radiation therapy treatment resumed in what Waikato DHB chief executive Kevin Snee described as an “important milestone” after two of the four machines were reinstated.
An emergency department nurse told The New Zealand Herald several systems had been restored and they finally had access to the Vocera communication system and some computer applications. Staff were also able to access their emails again.
Not everything was back online, she said, but it was a big improvement on previous weeks.
While it was great that the systems were getting back online, she was still aware of the other pressures facing the department, such as a staff shortage and overcrowding, which was not being addressed.
Radiation therapy, laboratory systems, radiology for imaging, result viewer and its patient management system were the among the priority services to be reinstated first.
The DHB has several hundred servers, many major network sites and many thousands of workstations, numerous mobile devices and specialist medical equipment.
It was working closely with international specialist services to systematically test and secure all devices and systems before each one was reinstated.
The inpatient management system and diagnostic services across the radiology and laboratory services were also expected to be online by the end of last week.
More than half of its servers have been reinstated compromised and have integrity to be put back into service and about 20% of its workstation network was also back operation.
Patient Rights Advocacy Waikato spokesperson Carolyn Mckenzie said members had been extremely understanding about the crisis facing the DHB and the organisation had not received any more complaints than usual.
“I can say they have shown a fair bit of resilience working through the whole awful business.”
The Herald contacted the Waikato DHB for comment yesterday and is still waiting on a response.
