The effects of the recent cyber attack on pathology services provider Synnovis could last for ‘months’ an NHS update has revealed. The clinical impact of the attack has seen a significant reduction in the number of tests which can be processed and reported back to clinical teams at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College Hospitals NHS Trust.
NHS England London declared a regional incident and has been coordinating work across affected services, as well as with neighbouring providers and national partners, in order to manage disruption.
This has included:
- Coordinating mutual aid to ensure patients needing time-sensitive care can receive it, including having operations at other hospitals;
- Working with Synnovis and trusts to find ways to increase the number of tests that can be reported per day;
- Working with other pathology services to reroute blood tests from GP surgeries. This is currently in place for practices in Lambeth and Southwark, and will be rolled out to other boroughs as soon as possible; and
- Working with NHS Blood and Transplant to provide extra stocks of ‘universal’ blood types.
The data for the first week after the attack (3-9 June) show that, across the two most affected trusts – King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust – more than 800 planned operations and 700 outpatient appointments needed to be rearranged. The majority of planned activity has continued to go ahead, with some specialities impacted more than others. In order to maintain additional levels of ‘universal’ blood stocks in affected services, NHS Blood and Transplant have called out to O Positive and O Negative blood donors to urgently book appointments to donate.
Synnovis is focused on the technical recovery of the system, with plans in place to begin restoring some functionality in its IT system in the weeks to come. Full technical restoration will take some time, however, and the need to re-book tests and appointments will mean some disruption from the cyber incident will continue to be felt over coming months.
In its own update Synnovis has said: “Synnovis is firmly focused on restoring services to our patients and users and working closely with NHSE and external specialists on technical recovery. We are delivering against a comprehensive plan which prioritises both clinical criticality and the safe and secure restoration of services. In collaboration with our analytical platform suppliers, we have already brought our analysers back online, which is significant progress at this stage of the recovery process.”
Mark Dollar, Synnovis CEO, said: “I am incredibly sorry for the inconvenience and upset this incident is causing to patients, service users and frontline NHS colleagues. Please be assured that we are working tirelessly to restore systems and explore all options to contain impact on services. Our plan for the restoration of services is comprehensive and well underway, running in parallel to the forensic investigation being led by external specialists. Every available resource is focused on this plan. Progress has been made, and I am confident momentum will continue to gain pace given the extraordinary efforts of our colleagues and partners in supporting clinicians and their patients during such a disruptive time."