Hospital hit by cyber attack asks staff to donate blood
One of the hospitals hit by a cyber attack has asked its staff to donate blood amid fears the disruption could last for months.
The NHS issued an urgent plea for members of the public with blood type O to donate on Monday after a pathology service provider was hit by a Russian cyber gang.
King’s College Hospital in London has encouraged its staff to donate as part of the NHS campaign, with experts warning that it may take months for services to be restored.
Julie Lowe, deputy chief executive of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said in an internal memo to staff: “NHS Blood and Transplant is calling for O blood type donors (both positive and negative) to book appointments in order to support the response to the ransomware cyber attack incident. Staff are also encouraged to donate blood as well.”
A spokesman for the hospital said they were supporting the NHS drive.
“Like all hospitals, we are supporting the NHS Blood and Transplant’s campaign to encourage people with O blood type to book appointments and donate, and we are encouraging staff to do the same if they choose,” the spokesman said.
It has been more than a week since the ransomware attack against Synnovis, which provides blood test services to King’s, Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust, and other NHS services in south east London.
The attack has seen procedures and operations cancelled as well as all routine blood testing paused, although emergency care is unaffected, the NHS has said.
Hospitals affected have used “mutual aid” arrangements with neighbouring hospitals to transfer the care of some patients, including inpatients with heart conditions.
GPs in south east London have said they are ordering fewer than five per cent of the total blood tests they would typically request on a daily basis.
The Bromley GP Alliance said all routine blood tests “were cancelled until further notice” and patients would not be able to book an appointment until August at the earliest.
Others in south east London have cancelled slots for the rest of this month at least.
It means delays for patients who require routine tests for conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancer.
The internal memo from King’s College Hospital, first seen by Bloomberg, also said disruption was likely to continue this week and beyond.
“We still do not know when Synnovis’ systems are likely to be restored, so we should expect to be dealing with this incident for the rest of this week, and beyond,” Ms Lowe said.
A disruptive ransomware attack
Ciaran Martin, the former head of the National Cyber Security Centre, said the NHS could be facing a prolonged period of disruption.
“We should not be surprised that the time it takes to completely recover services is in the weeks or even months. That’s fairly typical for these types of disruptive ransomware attacks,” he told the Guardian.
He said it would be “highly unusual” for services to return to normal quickly.
The NHS has issued a plea for type O blood donors, with O negative able to be administered to anyone needing a transfusion, and O positive the most common type.
The attack by Russian cyber criminals Qilin has locked doctors out of the blood testing system, which is also used to pair patients with donated blood.
It means they do not know what blood type incoming patients are, making it vital to have adequate supplies of type O.
Services at Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, Bromley Healthcare, and primary care services across Bexley, Bromley, Lambeth, Lewisham, Greenwich and Southwark all continue to be impacted.
