‘Serious’ critical incident forces GPs in Bromley to cancel routine blood tests

A cyberattack on the healthcare sector in south-east London has forced the Bromley GP Alliance (BGPA) to cancel all routine blood test appointments until further notice.

On June 3, Synnovis fell victim to a ransomware cyberattack.

Synnovis is a provider of a range of medical services including blood tests, smears and bowel examinations to hospitals and practices serving NHS patients in south east London.

The situation currently affects all pathology services, including blood collection and cervical cancer screening.

Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts and primary care service users across south-east London were affected – some operations and procedures were cancelled.

In non-urgent cases, Synnovis asks patients to refrain from having blood drawn until further notice.

The disruption means that all non-urgent blood tests will be cancelled for the time being, as there is currently a lack of capacity to process and return the samples.

The BGPA would like to sincerely apologize to all patients and is committed to returning to normal operations as soon as possible.

The South East London Integrated Care Board (ICB) is working with Synnovis and hospital associations to assess the severity of the impact of the attack and develop an effective response plan.

Despite the circumstances, emergency care is still available.

Patients are instructed to access services through conventional channels, such as dialling 999 in an emergency or 111 in non-urgent cases.

Patients are urged to keep existing appointments unless otherwise advised.

The BGPA thanks the public for their understanding and assures that resolving this issue is a top priority.

A spokesperson for the Bromley GP Alliance said: “We regret to inform patients that all routine blood test appointments have been cancelled until further notice as the NHS in south east London has been affected by a cyber-attack.”

According to the PA news agency, a group called Qilin was behind the attack.

An NHS England spokesman for the London region said on Tuesday that Monday’s incident had a “significant impact” on service delivery at Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and primary care in south-east London.

Memos sent to NHS staff at King’s College Hospital, Guy’s Hospital and St Thomas’ Hospital (including Royal Brompton and Evelina London Children’s Hospital) and primary health services in London said a critical incident had been declared.

Previously, former National Cyber ​​​​Security Centre executive director Ciaran Martin said the incident had led to a “severe reduction in capacity” and that it was “a very, very serious incident”.

Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme whether it was known who attacked Synnovis, Martin said: “Yes. We believe it is a Russian group of cybercriminals calling themselves Qilin.”

“These criminal groups – and there are quite a few of them – operate freely from Russia, give themselves prominent names, have websites on the so-called dark web, and this particular group has been attacking various organizations around the world for about two years.

“They’ve attacked car companies, they’ve attacked the Big Issue here in the UK, they’ve attacked Australian courts. They’re just after money.”