Over 800 operations, including 97 cancer treatments, had to be postponed following the cyber attack on Southwark’s hospital trusts.
On Monday 3 June, a ransomware cyber attack was perpetrated, primarily affecting King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
Qilin, a Russian group of cyber criminals, is understood to be behind the attack.
As well as the operations, data for the first week after the attack (3-9 June) showed that across these two trusts, 700 outpatient appointments had to be rearranged.
Despite this, the majority of planned activity has continued to go ahead, with some specialities impacted more than others.
Trusts are adding weekend clinics in an attempt to ensure any procedures are rearranged as quickly as possible, including by adding extra weekend clinics.
The attack was perpetrated against Synnovis, a pathology laboratory which processes blood tests on behalf of several NHS organisations, mostly in Southeast London.
Gracefield Gardens, the Tessa Jowell Health Centre and Evelina London’s Children’s Hospital are also affected.
The government’s National Cyber Security Centre and NHS England’s Cyber Operations team continue to work towards a solution.
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.
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Any patient with a planned appointment at these Trusts, who has not been contacted, should attend their appointment as normal.
All unplanned services, including A&E services, are open as normal.
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is currently calling for O-positive and O-negative blood donors to book appointments in one of the 25 NHS Blood Donor Centres in England.
