Pathology issues

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On Monday 3 June Synnovis, a provider of lab services, was the victim of a ransomware cyber attack.

This is having a significant impact on the delivery of services at Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts and primary care services in south east London and we apologise for the inconvenience this is causing to patients and their families.

Emergency care continues to be available, so patients should access services in the normal way by dialling 999 in an emergency and otherwise using 111, and patients should continue to attend appointments unless they are told otherwise.

We will continue to provide updates for local patients and the public about the impact on services and how they can continue to get the care they need. The attack is impacting testing; blood tests are on example of tests which are severely impacted. If you have an appointment for one or more of these, it may be cancelled or rearranged.

NHS partners and Synnovis are working urgently to fully understand the impact of the incident with the support of the government’s National Cyber Security Centre and our Cyber Operations team.

The local NHS have set up a webpage where the latest updates will be posted. You can view this here.

Background

· Some activity has already been cancelled or redirected to other providers as urgent work is prioritised.

· Emergency care continues to be available, including using 111 online as the first port of call for health needs, and only using 999 if it is a serious or life-threatening emergency. For more information on when to call 999 and when to go to A&E, you can visit the NHS UK website. Patients should continue to attend appointments unless told otherwise.

· Synnovis is a partnership between SYNLAB UK & Ireland, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Synnovis provides services to the NHS, clinical users and other service users. For more information visit https://www.synnovis.co.uk/

· NHS providers have tried and tested business continuity plans for instances like this, which includes offering mutual aid.