Cyber ​​incident update: Clinical impact in South East London: Thursday 4 July | NHS England

NHS England London released its latest weekly data update on the clinical impact of the Synnovis ransomware cyberattack on Monday 3 June.

More than four weeks after the cyberattack, NHS organisations across London continue to work in partnership to ensure people who need critical and urgent care receive it.

NHS England also continues to work with Synnovis and the National Crime Agency to respond to the criminal ransomware attack on Synnovis systems.

In response to the attack, NHS England London declared a regional incident and continues to coordinate the work of all affected services, as well as with neighbouring providers and national partners, to manage the disruption.

Some services, such as outpatient appointments, are now operating at a similar level to before the incident, but other services continue to experience disruptions.

Urgent and emergency services will continue to be available as usual. Patients should access services in the usual way by dialling 999 in an emergency and otherwise using NHS 111 via the NHS app, online or by calling (111).

Patients will be informed of any changes to their care by their local NHS organisation through the usual contact channels, including texts, phone calls and letters.

Data for the fourth reporting week (24-30 June) shows that in the two worst-affected trusts, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, 1,517 acute outpatient appointments and 136 planned procedures had to be postponed due to the attack.

This means that since 3 June, 4,913 acute outpatient appointments and 1,391 planned procedures have been postponed at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr Chris Streather, Medical Director of NHS London, said: “I am incredibly proud of how the NHS in London continues to work to minimise the impact on patients. Staff are doing their very best to keep patients safe and deliver the high quality care we strive for across the capital.

“While we are seeing significant progress and most services are operating close to normal, we continue to work tirelessly with our colleagues across London to ensure all services are fully operational again as quickly as possible.

“Last week, King’s College Hospital and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trusts struggled with the added pressure of industrial action which placed further demands on staff, so I would like to recognise the hard work of all their staff who have implemented robust plans to maintain patient safety.

“Mutual aid arrangements in place in primary care continue to show progress in meeting urgent needs. Pathology services are now operating at 54% of their pre-cyberattack capacity. This is helping to increase the number of blood tests available in the most critical and urgent cases.”

NHS Blood and Transplant has urged blood donors with blood group O positive and O negative to make urgent appointments to donate at one of the 25 NHS blood centres in inner cities across England to help boost supplies of blood group O following the cyber incident. You can visit blood.co.uk or call 0300 123 23 23 to make an appointment.

Investigations of this nature are complex and can take some time. Given the complexity of the investigation, it may take some time to determine which individuals are affected.

The NHS will continue to provide updates as more details become available as Synnovis’s full investigation continues and a helpline has been set up to support those affected (Incident Helpline: 0345 8778967).

Further details of the incident, including a questions and answers section, can be found on the NHS England website.

background

Current information on the impact on NHS London is based on provisional data reported by the trusts and organisations involved.

Please note that all figures provided are from unvalidated management information. This has been provided in the interest of transparency.

Weekly updates will be provided while the incident continues.

The update covers the week of June 24-30, 2024.

The data do not include rescheduling due to industrial action by junior doctors, which lasted from 7:00 a.m. on Thursday, 27 June to 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday, 2 July.

The next update will be on Thursday, July 11th.

Planned treatments (partial and outpatient treatments)

In Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts there were:

1. 136 planned procedures postponed (compared to 205 cancellations in the week starting June 17)
2. 13 of these were cancer treatments (compared to 24 last week; a figure of 20 had previously been given for the week starting 17 June, but this was revised after validation)

There is no immediate significant impact on reported cancer levels. It is too early to understand the impact on 62-day performance and/or the Faster Diagnosis Standard for the affected trusts.

Effects of transplantation

29 organs were diverted for use by other trusts (compared to 21 last week; the figure for the week beginning 17 June was originally 15 but this was revised following further review).

maternity

In Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts:

Last week, zero planned caesarean sections were postponed/rescheduled (compared to zero the week before; originally reported as one but revised after further review).

Ambulances

In Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts there were:

1. 1,517 outpatient hospital appointments were postponed last week (compared to 1,300 last week)
2. 127 outpatient appointments in the community were postponed last week (compared to 101 last week; last week a figure of 30 was given but this was corrected after further review)

Blood tests

Pathology services in south-east London have been increased to around 54% of normal capacity this week, compared to 45% last week.

primary care

Primary care appointments will take place as usual, but blood tests will be carried out primarily in urgent cases.

The impact on services and testing has been variable, however GP referrals have been significantly impacted with only urgent referrals being accepted for blood sciences (haematology, biochemistry, immunology, virology). Typically histology (a diagnosis and examination of tissues used to diagnose infections, cancer and other diseases) and cervical smears are performed.

Greater impact

Synnovis is carrying out specialist investigations for other hospitals in the country. However, the significant impact on services remains in South East London. Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust remain affected by a critical incident, while Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, Bromley Healthcare and the primary health services in South East London remain significantly affected and are involved in the incident response.