Cyber attack on Synnovis forced London hospitals to cancel over 800 surgeries

NHS England said several London hospitals had to cancel more than 800 surgeries following a significant data security incident at pathology services provider Synnovis.

The announcement follows the London-based pathology services provider announcing that it was a victim of a ransomware attack on June 3 that affected all of its IT systems.

The ransomware attack affected several NHS hospitals, including Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and other primary care providers across southeast London.

In a recent announcement, the trust said, “Data for the first week after the attack (3-9 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 800 planned operations and 700 outpatient appointments needed to be rearranged.

“Trusts are working hard to make sure any procedures are rearranged as quickly as possible, including by adding extra weekend clinics. Patients will be kept informed about any changes to their treatment by the NHS organisation caring for them,” the trust added.

Last week, NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) said that several hospitals faced severe blood shortages due to the cyber attack on Synnovis as hospitals could not match patients’ blood at normal frequency.

“For surgeries and procedures requiring blood to take place, hospitals need to use O type blood as this is safe to use for all patients and blood has a shelf life of 35 days, so stocks need to be continually replenished,” NHSBT said. It urged blood donors to come forward and donate O Positive and O Negative blood as soon as they could.