Update on cyber incident: clinical impact in South East London: Thursday 4 July

Friday 05 Jul 2024 @ 10:05
NHS England

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

Over four weeks on from the cyber attack, NHS organisations across London continue to work in partnership to ensure people who require critical and urgent care receive it.

NHS England is also continuing to work with Synnovis and the National Crime Agency to respond to the criminal ransomware attack on Synnovis systems.

In response to the attack, NHS England London declared a regional incident and continues to coordinate work across affected services, as well as with neighbouring providers and national partners to manage disruption.

Some services, such as outpatient appointments, are now operating to similar levels to before the incident but there continues to be disruption to other services.

Urgent and emergency services have remained available as usual, and patients should access services in the normal way by dialling 999 in an emergency and otherwise use NHS 111 through the NHS App, online or on the phone (111).

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.

The data for the fourth week of reporting (24-30 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, 1,517 acute outpatient appointments and 136 elective procedures had to be postponed because of the attack.

This means so far 4,913 acute outpatient appointments and 1,391 elective procedures and have been postponed at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust since 3 June.

Dr Chris Streather, Medical Director for NHS London, said: “I’m incredibly proud of how the NHS in London continues to work to minimise the impact on patients, with staff working hard to maintain patient safety and provide the high-quality care that we strive for across the capital.

“Although we are seeing significant progress, with most services operating near to normal, we continue to work tirelessly in partnership with our colleagues across London to ensure all services are back to being fully operational as quickly as possible.

“Last week, King’s College Hospital and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trusts had to deal with the added pressure of industrial action which put further demands on staff, so I would like to recognise the hard work of all their staff who put robust plans in place to maintain patient safety.

“The mutual aid agreements that have been put in place in primary care continue to show progress to meet urgent demand, with pathology services now operating at 54% of the capacity they had prior to the cyber attack – helping to increase the number of blood tests available in the most critical and urgent cases.”

NHS Blood and Transplant have called out to O Positive and O Negative blood donors to urgently book appointments to donate in one of the 25 town and city centre NHS Blood Donor Centres in England, to boost stocks of O type blood following the cyber incident. You can visit blood.co.uk or call 0300 123 23 23 to book an appointment.

Investigations of this type are complex and can take time. Given the complexity of the investigation, it may be some time before it is clear which individuals have been impacted.

As more detail becomes available through Synnovis’ full investigation, the NHS will continue to provide updates and a helpline has been set up to support people impacted (incident helpline: 0345 8778967).

More details on the incident, including a questions and answers section, are available on the NHS England website.

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 covers the week of 24 – 30 June 2024.

The data does not include appointments postponed due to industrial action by junior doctors, which ran from 7am on Thursday 27 June until 7am on Tuesday 2 July.

The next update will be on Thursday 11 July.

Planned care (day case and inpatient treatments)

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

136 elective procedures postponed (compared to 205 cancellations for the week commencing 17 June)
13 of these were cancer treatments (compared to 24 last week; a figure of 20 was provided for w/c 17 June previously, but this has been revised following validation)

There is no immediate significant impact on cancer reported metrics. It is too early to understand the impact on 62-day performance and or Faster Diagnosis Standard for the affected trusts.

Transplant impact

29 organs were diverted for use by other Trusts (compared to 21 last week; a figure of 15 was originally provided for the week commencing 17 June but this has been revised following further validation).

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; a figure of one was originally provided but this was revised following further validation).

Outpatients

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

1,517 hospital outpatient appointments postponed in the last week (compared to 1,300 last week)
127 community outpatient appointments postponed in the last week (compared to 101 last week; a figure of 30 was provided last week but this has been revised following further validation)

Blood tests

South East London pathology services provided this week have increased to approximately 54% of normal capacity – compared to 45% last week.

Primary care

Primary care appointments are going ahead as normal, however blood tests are being prioritised for urgent cases.

Impact on services and tests has varied however GP referrals have been significantly impacted with only urgent referrals being accepted for Blood Sciences (haematology, biochemistry, immunology, virology). 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 continue to be significantly impacted and involved in the incident response.

Channel website: https://www.england.nhs.uk/

Original article link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/2024/07/update-on-cyber-incident-clinical-impact-in-south-east-london-thursday-4-july/

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The self-testing kit contains a swab, similar to a long cotton bud, which is used to collect a sample from the vagina. The sample is then posted back to the NHS for free, where it is checked for high-risk HPV.

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Women who are eligible will start receiving invitations today via the NHS App, text message, email or letter, and once invited they will be able to order a free kit through the NHS App or their NHS online account.

This is the next major step the NHS is taking in its pledge to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040, by making it as easy as possible for people to get the lifesaving HPV vaccination and increasing cervical screening attendance.

Dr Sue Mann, National Clinical Director for Women’s Health at NHS England, said: “Screening saves thousands of lives each year by preventing cancers and catching them earlier, but only around two-thirds of women are attending cervical screening appointments when invited by the NHS.

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“There are lots of reasons that may stop women from getting their cervical screening – embarrassment, lack of time, or worries about discomfort – and these kits provide a discreet and convenient option we hope will encourage more women to take up the life-saving test.

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Cervical screening appointments with a clinician remain the best way to help prevent cervical cancer, but HPV self-testing is being introduced by the NHS as an additional choice for people who have not taken up previous invitations.

HPV self-testing is an invitation-only offer and is being rolled out in phases across England as part of the NHS Cervical Screening Programme, starting with those aged between 30 and 65, who have not attended cervical screening following previous invitations.

The national rollout comes on the back of the YouScreen trial run by North London cancer alliances in collaboration with NHS England and King’s College London in 2021, which found offering self-testing kits to under-screened women at their GP practice or at home could boost the numbers screened in England by about 400,000 each year.

The UK National Screening Committee used evidence from this trial in its recommendation to roll this out wider.

The latest figures show that 68.8% of eligible women were up to date with their cervical screening – below the NHS England target of 80%. This means around 4 million women in England are not up to date with their routine check-up.

Women aged 24-64 are invited for cervical screening by the NHS every five years, or more frequently if HPV is detected.

Anyone who has been invited for cervical screening can still book an appointment at any time, even if the invitation was sent months or years ago.

It is still important to attend cervical screening appointments if you have been vaccinated against HPV as the vaccine does not provide protection from all types of HPV, so there is a still a small chance of getting cervical cancer.

People who routinely attend for a cervical screening test with a clinician at their GP practice or sexual health clinic should continue to book their appointments as normal.

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“These free self-testing kits will be offered to four million women who are currently behind on their screening to make it easier for as many women as possible to keep themselves healthy and safe.

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Cancer Research UK’s Chief Executive, Michelle Mitchell, said: “Cervical screening is a powerful tool that saves lives – it can prevent cervical cancer or spot it at an earlier stage when treatment is more likely to be successful.

“While it’s best for cervical screening to be done by a nurse or doctor, there are barriers that make it challenging for some people to attend. At-home HPV self-testing kits will help more people take part in a way that works for them.

“If people receive their cervical screening or self-testing kit invitation, please consider taking up the offer and encourage loved ones to do the same. Beating cervical cancer means beating it for everyone, and this move brings us closer to that goal.”

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