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 12th week after the attack (19th – 25th 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, 21 acute outpatient appointments and four elective procedures had to be postponed because of the attack.

This means so far 10,104 acute outpatient appointments and 1,700 elective procedures have been postponed at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust since 3rd June.

Operational capacity in all laboratories overall compared with pre-cyber attack levels

Most systems are now fully restored, with services including blood sciences, tissue sciences and genetics back to running at pre-cyberattack levels. Infection Sciences are expected to be up to full capacity by the end of August and the blood transfusion service will be recovered by early autumn.

Returning testing services to Synnovis

Synnovis have successfully rebuilt most of their core IT systems. As a result, testing services for GP practices in Bexley, Lewisham and Greenwich returned to Synnovis on Thursday 15 August. Testing services for the remaining three south east London boroughs, Bromley, Lambeth and Southwark, will repatriate to Synnovis in the coming weeks. 

Plans are being developed to fully restore pathology services for community and mental health providers.

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.

Dr Jane Fryer, Deputy Medical Director for NHS London, said: 

“It is nearly three months since the cyber attack which caused significant disruption to NHS services in the capital, especially in south east London. We are starting to see the disruption caused to primary care reducing and I am proud of the partnership working that has taken place across the NHS in London and with Synnovis to recover services.

“Our focus now is the full restoration of blood transfusion services which 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 until this time.

“We recognise the impact cancellations have on our patients and on our staff, who continue to work very hard in difficult circumstances. I would like to thank patients for their understanding in what has been a challenging time.”

Synnovis chief executive Mark Dollar said:

“I am pleased to report that all transfers of GP services to date have gone smoothly and successfully, with these GPs having regained reliable access to the full breadth of Synnovis’ pathology services. We plan to resume pathology testing services for GPs in Southwark, Lambeth and Bromley, as well as for community and mental health services, as soon as possible.

“I would like to reiterate my thanks to all our service users for their continued support and understanding.”

Sam Hepplewhite, Director of Prevention and Partnerships, NHS South East London, said:

“We continue to work with Synnovis on repatriating testing services for GP services and look forward to repatriating services for all boroughs in south east London as soon as possible. As ever, we thank our primary care colleagues, our partners and our mutual aid providers for their collaboration and support as we work through the ongoing effects of this cyber attack.”

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 19 – 25th August 2024.

 

Planned care (day case and inpatient treatments)

Across King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust four elective procedures were postponed (compared to 3 the week beginning 12th August). None of these were cancer treatments (compared to 0 last week).

It is still too early to understand the impact on 62-day performance or the faster diagnosis standard for the affected trusts.

Transplant impacts

No organs were diverted for use by other trusts

Maternity

No c-sections were postponed in the last week

Outpatients

21 outpatient appointments were postponed in the last week (compared to 29 for the week 12-18 August)

No community outpatient appointments have been postponed in the last week.

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 and King’s College Hospital 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 impacted and involved in the incident response.