London hospitals postpone 1,600 operations and appointments after Russian cyberattack
London hospitals had to delay nearly 1,600 operations and outpatient appointments due to a cyberattack, per the National Health Service (NHS). The two severely impacted hospital trusts in London, King's College and Guy's and St Thomas', had to reschedule 832 surgical procedures between June 3 and June 9. The affected procedures included cancer surgeries, organ transplants, planned cesarean sections, heart procedures, bariatric surgery, and hip/knee replacements. The two trusts also had to rearrange 736 appointments.
Cyberattack disrupts hospital operations
The NHS England's London region disclosed these figures, in its first comprehensive statement about the significant disruption caused by the hack at GSTT, King's, and four other trusts. The cyberattack was executed by the Russia-based Qilin criminal gang, who infiltrated the IT system of pathology specialist Synnovis. They encrypted its files, effectively locking it out and making them inaccessible. Synnovis is a joint venture between the NHS and private firm Synlab, providing vital pathology services such as blood tests.
Organ transplants and patient care impacted
The severity of the attack led to 18 organs, primarily kidneys, that would have been used in transplants at King's being redirected to other hospitals. Dr. Chris Streather, NHS London's Medical Director, stated that the cyberattack is significantly affecting services in south-east London, with hundreds of appointments/procedures being postponed. St George's Hospital, near south-west London, has been instrumental in NHS's "mutual aid" arrangements, taking on some patients requiring "major life-changing surgery," who GSTT and King's would usually have looked after.
Uncertainty over patient data breach
It is still uncertain whether Qilin has stolen patient data besides disabling Synnovis's systems. NHS England stated that investigations are "continuing to establish any possible impact to data," implying that it is unclear whether patient information has been taken. As of Friday evening, Qilin had not posted data from the Synnovis hack on its extortion site on the dark web.
