Operations cancelled in NHS cyber attack
STUART PIKE
HOSPITAL operations were cancelled after East Lancashire health services fell victim to a cyber attack which plunged the NHS into chaos.
GP practices and hospitals in the region were among organisations across the world ‘held ransom’ by hackers as a ‘major incident’ was declared on May 12. The unprecedented attack hit 48 NHS trusts and other organisations in 99 countries.
East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust confirmed that nine “non life-threatening” operations at Burnley General were cancelled on Saturday, covering nonessential procedures such as knee and hip replacements. Electronic prescribing systems for hospitals and GPs were disrupted, with six wards at Royal Blackburn reverting to paper-based systems, while district nurses were also initially unable to access patient information.
As the attack unfolded, computer screenshots were shared by victims showing a locked computer with a demand for payment.
Hyndburn’s Labour council leader Miles Parkinson said the attack was “very upsetting”.
He added: “The NHS already has enough to deal with managing an ever decreasing budget, with year on year increases in patient numbers.
“However, I am not surprised to learn that the NHS had prioritised delivering health services over renewing its IT maintenance contract with Microsoft. Jeremy Hunt (the health secretary) was warned of this issue several months ago. Our biggest threat to national security is cyber warfare and we agree fully with Microsoft that Tories are squarely to blame for this.”
However, Hyndburn Conservative leader Coun Tony Dobson said: “As I understand it, NHS Digital forwarded an upgrade to all trusts recently which would have stopped this cyber attack happening on the NHS and that’s why not every trust has been affected.
“We all want to be serviced by a local dedicated health team but that also comes with responsibilities and accountabilities and I’m sure a lot of lessons have been learnt.”
East Lancashire NHS Hospitals Trust referred all queries over its IT systems to NHS Digital.
East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group said GP practices would be open as usual, but many were still bringing their IT and clinical systems back online.