Number of appointments at NHS trusts impacted by cyber attack passes 10,000

More than 10,000 appointments have been cancelled at the two London NHS trusts that were worst affected by a cyber attack earlier this summer, new figures have revealed.

Pathology services provider Synnovis was the victim of a ransomware attack by Russian cyber gang Qilin on June 3.

An update from NHS England London for July 29 to August 4 showed a further 578 acute outpatient appointments and 20 elective procedures had to be postponed at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust as a result of the incident.

This brings the total to 10,001 acute outpatient appointments and 1,680 elective procedures across the two trusts so far, NHS England London said.

The update added that more than 60 IT systems used in laboratories have been rebuilt, or are in the process of being rebuilt, with capacity increasing.

It is understood that Synnovis will take over pathology services used by primary and community care in south east London this month, subject to testing.

Full restoration of blood transfusion services is planned for early autumn.

However, with this incident now running for more than two months, we are very conscious of the continued impact on some of our patients whose appointments are not able to go ahead as planned

Dr Jane Fryer, deputy medical director for NHS London

Dr Jane Fryer, deputy medical director for NHS London, said: “Synnovis’ steady rebuild of its core systems remains on track, with the upcoming move of GP services back to Synnovis a significant milestone.

“However, with this incident now running for more than two months, we are very conscious of the continued impact on some of our patients whose appointments are not able to go ahead as planned.

“We also want to thank staff for continuing to work flexibly and resourcefully during this period, to make sure we keep rescheduled appointments to a minimum.

“With most services working at near-normal levels, including in outpatients, day cases and non-elective care, it’s important that patients with booked appointments continue to attend unless they have been contacted to say otherwise.”

In July, NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) issued an amber alert for the second time ever, after it warned national stocks of O negative and O positive blood had fallen to “unprecedentedly low levels”.

We are incredibly thankful to our donors for their support and we need people to keep booking appointments in the coming weeks and months

Mark Croucher, assistant director of donor experience at NHSBT

The cyber attack impacted O negative stocks, with demand up 94% compared to the same period last year.

Mark Croucher, assistant director of donor experience at NHSBT, said: “We’ve seen an amazing response to our appeal after announcing an amber alert two weeks ago.

“We are incredibly thankful to our donors for their support and we need people to keep booking appointments in the coming weeks and months.

“There are around 50,000 appointments every week and while we have seen an increase in fill rates the past week, we do see a sharp drop in coming weeks so we’d urge you to please book ahead.”