NHS England London has released its second data update on the clinical impact of the ransomware cyber-attack perpetrated against Synnovis on Monday 3 June.

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.

In response to the attack, NHS England London declared a regional incident and has been coordinating work across affected services, as well as with neighbouring providers and national partners to manage disruption.

Thanks to this work, the majority of planned activity has continued to go ahead.

Urgent and emergency services have remained available as usual, and patients should access services in the normal way by dialling 999 in an emergency and otherwise use NHS 111 through the NHS App, online or on the phone.

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 text, phone and letters. Staff are working hard to keep all patients informed and we apologise again for any disruption.

The data for the second week of the attack (10-16 June), shows 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 1,294 outpatient appointments and 320 elective procedures had to be postponed because of the attack.

This means so far 1,134 elective procedures and 2,194 outpatient appointments have been postponed at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust since 3 June.

Dr Chris Streather, Medical Director for NHS London, said: “Although we are seeing some services operating at near normal levels and have seen a reduction in the number of elective procedures being postponed, the cyber-attack on Synnovis is continuing to have a significant impact on NHS services in South East London.

“Having treatment postponed is distressing for patients and their families, and I would like to apologise to any patient who has been impacted by the incident, and staff are continuing to work hard to re-arrange appointments and treatments as quickly as possible.

“Mutual aid agreements between NHS labs have begun to have a positive impact in primary care providers, helping increase the number of blood tests available for the most critical and urgent cases.

“Patients should access services in the normal way by dialling 999 in an emergency and otherwise use NHS 111 through the NHS App, online or on the phone. They should also continue to attend appointments unless they are told otherwise by the clinic team.”

NHS Blood and Transplant have called out to O Positive and O Negative blood donors to urgently book appointments to donate in one of the 25 town and city centre NHS Blood Donor Centres in England, to boost stocks of O type blood following the cyber incident, with people urged to visit blood.co.uk or call 0300 123 23 23 to book an appointment over the coming weeks and months.

Background

NHS London impact update based on provisional data reported by trusts and organisations involved.

Please note all numbers quoted are drawn from unvalidated management information; these have been provided in the interests of transparency.

Updates will be provided on a weekly basis as the incident continues.

The next update will be Thursday 27 June.

The update shows that for the week 10 – 16 June 2024:

Planned care (day case and inpatient treatments)

Across Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts there have been:

1. 320 elective procedures postponed (compared to 814 the week before).
2. 111 of these were cancer treatments (compared to 73 last week – the previous figure last week for 10-16 June was 97, but following further validation, the actual figure has been reduced following validation)

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

Transplant impacts

1. 46 organs were diverted for use by other Trusts (compared to 18 last week).

Maternity

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

1. 0 planned C-sections have been postponed/rescheduled in the last week (A figure of 5 was provided last week for 10-16 June, but following further validation, the actual figure was 1).

Outpatients

Across Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts there have been:

1. 1,294 hospital outpatient appointments were postponed in the last week (A figure of 736 was provided last week for 10-16 June, but following further validation, the actual figure was 900.)
2. 38 community outpatient appointments have been postponed in the last week. (A figure of 125 was provided last week for 10-16 June, but following further validation, the actual figure was 78.)

Urgent and emergency care

All unplanned services, including A&E services, are open as normal.

Optional blood borne virus (HIV, Hep C and Hep B) tests, which are offered to A&E patients as part of a trial, are currently suspended.

Blood tests

South East London pathology services provided this week have increased to approximately 30% of normal capacity – compared to 10% last week.

Primary care

Primary care appointments are going ahead as normal, however blood tests are being prioritised for urgent cases.

Impact on services and tests has varied however GP referrals have been significantly impacted with only urgent referrals being accepted for Blood Sciences (haematology, biochemistry, immunology, virology).  Normal services are operating for histology (a diagnosis and study of the tissues which are used to diagnose infections, cancer and other diseases) and cervical smears.

Wider impact

Synnovis provides specialist tests for other hospitals in the country, however the material service impact 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 in a critical incident, while Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, Bromley Healthcare, and primary care services in South East London continue to be significantly impacted and involved in the incident response.