One month on from the Synnovis cyber attack, NHS England has shared its latest update on the clinical impact in South East London.
The update from NHS England, published on 4 July, shares that for the fourth week of reporting data (24-30 June), across the two most affected trusts, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, 1,517 acute outpatient appointments and 136 elective procedures had to be postponed because of the attack.
This takes the total number to 4,913 acute outpatient appointments and 1,391 elective procedures that have been postponed at the trusts since 3 June.
The attack, which took place on 3 June, led to healthcare organisations including Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital, and primary care services in South East London, declaring a “critical incident”, resulting in a significant impact on the delivery of services in the region.
NHS England reports that South East London pathology services are now operating at 54% of the capacity they had prior to the cyber attack, an increase from 45% the week prior.
To read the latest update from NHS England on the Synnovis cyber attack in full, please click here.
NHS cyber security in focus
Elsewhere in cyber security news, Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria (HI NENC) has opened an early engagement opportunity for a gamified scenario based cyber security exercise, designed to enhance preparedness for cyber events amongst senior leaders in health and social care.
In June, NHS England published an opportunity for services to support a cyber security focused programme and assurance model, as part of efforts to appoint a call-off contract with one provider, worth an estimated £4,290,000. The procurement highlighted the need for education and training support, as well as a “critical supplier approach”, alongside the piloting of an assurance model.
For the latest news and resources on cyber security in healthcare, visit HTN’s cyber security channel here, which inlcudes guidance on network segmentation for cyber security and the Department of Health & Social Care’s “Defend as one” Strategy released to protect the NHS from cyber attacks.
