The cyber attack on Synnovis, a company that supplies lab services to major London hospitals, has left NHS England unable to avoid disruption for some patients “despite the best efforts of its partners and NHS staff,” NHS England stated in a press release it issued.
The press release goes on to state that the data for the first week after the attack (3-9 June) showed that, across the two most affected Trusts – King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust – more than 800 planned operations and 700 outpatient appointments needed to be rearranged.
However, the majority of planned activity has continued to go ahead, with some specialities impacted more than others.
More than 800 planned operations and 700 outpatient appointments needed to be rearranged
Trusts are working hard to make sure any procedures are rearranged as quickly as possible, including by adding extra weekend clinics.
Patients will be kept informed about any changes to their treatment by the NHS organisation caring for them.
This will be through the usual contact routes including texts, phone and letters. Any patient with a planned appointment at these Trusts, who has not been contacted, should attend their appointment as normal.
Trusts are working hard to make sure any procedures are rearranged as quickly as possible, including by adding extra weekend clinics
Professor Ian Abbs, Chief Executive of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, and Professor Clive Kay, Chief Executive of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, jointly, said: “The cyber-attack has had a significant impact on our services, and this is likely to remain the case for some time yet. Despite the superb efforts of our staff and support from partners across London to continue caring for patients, we have had to postpone a number of operations and appointments which we are working to reschedule as quickly as possible.”
“St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the Trusts closely involved and is creating capacity to treat some patients who would ordinarily be seen at King’s College Hospital or Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trusts,” the Executives continued.
“St George’s has set up an incident response room to manage requests and share information more easily, while ensuring it can continue to provide services to its own patients while supporting others,” the Executives concluded.
Urgent call for O Positive and O Negative blood donors
Further, following the cyber attack, NHS Blood and Transplant have called out to O Positive and O Negative blood donors to urgently book appointments to donate in one of the 25 town and city centre NHS Blood Donor Centres in England over the next few weeks.
This is in order to maintain additional levels of ‘universal’ blood stocks in affected services. NHS England is also urging people to visit blood.co.uk or call 0300 123 23 23 to book an appointment.
Dr Chris Streather, Medical Director for NHS London, said: “Today’s data shows that NHS teams are working flat out to see as many patients as possible – but there is no doubt the ransomware cyber-attack on Synnovis is having a significant impact on services in south east London, with hundreds of appointments and procedures being postponed.”
Sites impacted are continuing to prioritise the most urgent care
“Having treatment postponed is distressing for patients and their families, and we apologise to all those who have been impacted, and staff will work hard to re-arrange appointments and treatments as quickly as possible,” Streather continued.
“Sites impacted are continuing to prioritise the most urgent care, so please use services in the normal way by dialling 999 in an emergency and otherwise use NHS 111 through the NHS App, online or on the phone,” Streather added.
“If you have not heard from your healthcare provider, please attend appointments as normal,” Streather concluded.
Measures Synnovis are currently taking
Synnovis is focused on the technical recovery of the system, with plans in place to begin restoring some functionality in its IT system in the weeks to come.
Full technical restoration will take some time, however, and the need to re-book tests and appointments will mean some disruption from the cyber incident will continue to be felt over coming months.
