Cyberattack on London hospitals: Some operations cancelled as attack disrupts patient care

CNN
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A cyberattack on a contractor of the English National Health Service has forced several major hospitals in London to cancel operations, blood tests and appointments and send patients elsewhere.

King’s College Hospital, Guy’s and St. Thomas’, as well as numerous primary care providers in the British capital are affected, a spokesman for the National Health Service (NHS) said on Tuesday.

The affected hospitals and providers all work with Synnovis, a company that provides laboratory services to the NHS. The company announced on Tuesday that it had been hit by a ransomware attack that affected all of its IT systems, “resulting in disruption to many of our pathology services”.

The services most affected included those related to blood tests and transfusions.

Oliver Dowson, 70, was being prepared for surgery from 6am on June 3 at the Royal Brompton Hospital – a heart and lung centre run by Guy’s and St Thomas’ – but at around 12.30pm a surgeon told him the operation could not go ahead, the PA news agency reported.

“Staff on the ward did not seem to know what had happened, only that many patients had been told to go home and wait for a new appointment,” he told the agency.

Vanessa Welham, from Streatham, south-west London, told PA that her husband’s blood test at Gracefield Gardens health centre was cancelled on Monday evening and he was told local centres were no longer taking bookings for an “indefinite period”.

The NHS said the attack had a “significant impact on service delivery” at London hospitals, but added that emergency care was still available.

The NHS spokesman apologised “for any inconvenience this may cause to patients and their families”.

“We are working hard to fully understand the impact of the incident with support from the government’s National Cyber ​​Security Center and our Cyber ​​Operations team,” the spokesman said.

In ransomware attacks, hackers typically use malicious software or malware to block access to a server until a ransom is paid. Attacks on the British health system are relatively rare, experts say.

Ciaran Martin, former head of the British government’s National Cyber ​​Security Centre, told CNN that Britain’s health services suffered “comparatively less disruption than the US” from ransomware attacks.

“This is partly because the UK health service is largely state-run and the government never pays,” said Martin.

“But this is an attack on a private supplier to the NHS. And it shows that the horrors of cybercrime disruption in healthcare can be felt here too.”

“Details are still being released, but this appears to be a very serious incident with potential implications for patient care,” Martin added.

Mark Dollar, CEO of Synnovis, said the company was “incredibly sorry for the inconvenience and distress this is causing to patients, service users and anyone else affected. We are doing our best to minimise the impact and will stay in touch with local NHS services to keep people updated on developments.”