More appointments and procedures delayed following cyber attack on NHS

A further 1,300 outpatient appointments and 205 elective procedures have been postponed due to ongoing disruption caused by a cyberattack that has hit several London hospitals.

Pathology services provider Synnovis fell victim to a ransomware attack carried out by the Russian cyber gang Qilin in early June.

New figures showed that between 17 and 23 June, the two worst-affected trusts, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, postponed 1,300 outpatient appointments and 205 elective procedures as a result.

NHS England London reported that since 3 June the number of outpatient visits has increased to 3,396 and the number of planned procedures performed to 1,255.

In a joint statement, Julie Lowe, deputy chief executive of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and Dr Simon Steddon, medical director of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, added: “We continue to treat the cyber attack as a critical incident at both sites and have also implemented measures to to limit disruption to patients resulting from the strike this week and next.

“We have had to postpone a number of surgeries and appointments. We would like to once again apologize to all patients affected by this situation.

“Employees continue to do excellent work in very difficult conditions, for which they deserve great credit.”

Earlier this week, NHS England confirmed that data stolen in the attack had been published online.

According to the BBC, Qilin shared almost 400GB of data on its darknet site and Telegram channel, including patient names, dates of birth, NHS numbers and blood test descriptions.

In a statement on Monday, NHS England said there was “no evidence” that cybercriminals had published the entire database, but it could be “a number of weeks” before we know which people were affected by the attack.

Dr Chris Streather, medical director of NHS London, said the service had “started to see real progress in general practice” last week, stating that “the impact of the cyberattack has been significant on pathology services”.

“Mutual aid arrangements put in place to meet urgent demand have been implemented rapidly across all six boroughs, with pathology services now able to operate at 45% of the capacity they had prior to the cyberattack,” he added.

“This helps increase the number of blood tests available for the most critical and urgent cases.

“It is important that patients who have appointments booked continue to attend their appointments unless they have been contacted to tell them otherwise.

“We apologize once again to everyone affected. Staff are working hard to reschedule affected appointments and treatments as quickly as possible.

“We continue to experience disruption to services at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

“I would like to thank all the trust staff who are working tirelessly to provide care and support to patients affected by this incident.”