NHS England London has released the latest data update on the clinical impact of the ransomware cyber attack against pathology services provider Synnovis on Monday 3 June.

The data for the tenth week of the attack (5th – 11th August), shows that across the two most affected trusts, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, 53 acute outpatient appointments and 13 elective procedures had to be postponed because of the attack.

This means so far 1,693 elective procedures and 10,054 acute 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.

Progress on rebuilding systems

Synnovis has confirmed that they have rebuilt their core IT systems which means that they can now resume testing services for GPs in Bexley, Lewisham and Greenwich from today.

Dr Jane Fryer, Deputy Medical Director for NHS London, said: “Today, Synnovis has confirmed that they have successfully rebuilt their core IT systems which means that South East London ICB are now in a position to start moving laboratory testing services for primary care back to Synnovis in three of their six boroughs. This means that GPs in these boroughs will regain access to the same tests and volume of pre-cyber attack.

“Due to general pathology services being fully restored at Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, they have seen a significant reduction in the number of outpatient appointments being postponed.

“For over two months the ransomware cyber attack has impacted patients, especially in South East London, so this reduction is a positive step forward to recovering services.”

Mark Dollar, CEO for Synnovis, said: “We have successfully rebuilt our core IT systems, meaning we are now in a position to resume testing services for GPs, with those based in Bexley, Lewisham and Greenwich transferring back to Synnovis on today (15/8).

“Immediately following transfer, GPs will have access to the full repertoire of testing services available before the cyberattack, and patients registered with these practices will find it easier to get a blood test appointment. For the time being, patients with an ‘urgent test’ form from their GP will still be able to turn up to one of the designated blood test clinics without the need to pre-book.

“The cyber attack on Synnovis and local healthcare services has had a major impact on everyone and is a harsh reminder that this can happen to any organisation at any time. The approach to recovery has been truly reflective of the effective collaboration in place between healthcare organisations across south east London, and I would like to thank patients, GPs, clinicians, our partners and others for their support and understanding throughout.”

Sam Hepplewhite, Director of Prevention and Partnerships at South East London NHS, said: “It is good news that we are in a position to start moving laboratory testing services for primary care back to Synnovis in three of our six boroughs. This has been a challenging period, and we would like to thank, again, all those who have stepped in to provide mutual aid, our GP practices who have kept the service to our residents running, and our residents for their patience and understanding. We still have a way to go before normal service is fully resumed in all boroughs and care settings, but this is a significant and welcome step.”

Blood transfusion services

Full restoration of blood transfusion services remains planned for early autumn, meaning that mutual aid will continue to be required for planned operations and transplants to minimise the ongoing impact on patients.

Strong response to amber alert but call for O group donors continues

Demand for O type blood from hospitals has increased due to both the cyber attack and a reduction in donations during the summer period.

O negative and O positive donors are still asked to urgently book and fill appointments at donor centres. People can visit blood.co.uk or call 0300 123 23 23 to book an appointment.

Advice for the public

NHS organisations across London continue to work in partnership to ensure people receive the critical and urgent care they need, when they need it. Advice to the public remains:

1. Continue to attend booked appointments unless contacted to say otherwise. 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 texts, phone calls and letters.
2. Continue to use NHS 111 through the NHS App, online or on the phone for non-urgent care.
3. Urgent and emergency services continue to be available to those who need emergency care and people should access services in the normal way by dialling 999 in an emergency.
4. Patients waiting on blood tests are advised to keep an eye on Swiftqueue, the online booking service, as more appointments become available.

As more detail becomes available through Synnovis’ full investigation, the NHS will continue to provide updates.

A helpline has been set up to support people affected (incident helpline: 0345 8778967). More details on the incident, including a questions and answers section, are also available on the NHS England website: https://www.england.nhs.uk/synnovis-cyber-incident

 

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 update shows that for the week 5^th – 11th August 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:

• 13 elective procedures postponed (there were 20 cancellations for the week commencing 29nd July).
• 3 of these were cancer treatments (compared to 3 for w/c 29nd July)

It is too early to understand the impact on 62-day performance and or Faster Diagnosis Standard for the affected trusts.

 

Transplant impacts

0 organs were diverted for use by other Trusts (compared to 0 last week).

 

Maternity

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

Zero planned C-sections have been postponed/rescheduled in the last week (compared to zero the week before).

 

Outpatients

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

53 hospital outpatient appointments were postponed in the last week (compared to 578 for the week 22-28 July)

0 community outpatient appointments have been postponed in the last week (compared to 0 last week).

 

Laboratory blood testing capacity
South east London pathology services provided this week increased to around 85% of normal capacity. (This is expected to further increase with three of the six boroughs in south east London being able to start moving laboratory testing services for primary care back to Synnovis in three of their six boroughs from today 15/8).

 

Primary care
General practice appointments are going ahead as normal, however blood tests are being prioritised based on clinical need.

Following mutual aid arrangements being put in place to enable testing to continue during this period, transition back to Synnovis services has started this week with three boroughs (Lewisham, Greenwich and Bexley) transferring back following extensive testing and assurance processes.  Mutual aid arrangements remain in place for the remaining boroughs, which ensures that all practices have access to pathology laboratory testing.

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 continues to be significantly impacted and involved in the incident response.