Teenager’s anguish over NHS hacking test delay
A MOTHER has hit out after her son’s cancer test was cancelled because of the NHS cyber hack.
Teenager Gregor Kerr was booked in for a scan at Monklands Hospital, in Airdrie, on Sunday but the test was cancelled because the computer system was down.
The 15-year-old has been unwell for two years with dangerously high red blood cells and iron levels and doctors are investigating whether his illness could be caused by cancer.
His mother Lorraine, 45, from East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, said her son’s ultrasound abdominal scan was to check for cancer in an attempt to find out why his red blood cell count is so high. Her son had been falling asleep in class and had no energy for sports.
His mother said: ‘It was cancelled just as we were getting ready to leave. Now we don’t know when Gregor will be seen. What I can’t understand is why the hospital did not have a paper record of everyone they were seeing so they could let patients know about the cancellations quicker. Gregor had been fasting since he went to bed the night before.’
It comes as Microsoft was yesterday accused of having a ‘brass neck’ after it tried to shift the blame for Friday’s crippling cyberattack onto the government.
The so-called ‘WannaCrypt’ virus, which brought the NHS to its knees on Friday as it spread around the world, only attacks computers running on Microsoft’s Windows operating system.
But instead of accepting blame, the technology giant said victims of the hack left their computers exposed by failing to update their systems. Chief legal officer Brad Smith said: ‘On March 14, Microsoft released a security update to patch this vulnerability and protect our customers. While this [the patch] protected newer Windows systems and computers that had enabled Windows Update to apply this latest update, many computers remained unpatched globally.
‘As a result, hospitals, businesses, governments and computers at homes were affected.’
He warned governments to treat the hack as a ‘wake-up call’.
Around one in 20 NHS computers – 4.7 per cent – run on the system, first launched in 2001.
NHS Digital said many of these cannot be updated because they are running MRI machines and other major pieces of equipment. National Crime Agency director general Lynne Owens said: ‘As things stand, there is no indication of a second surge of cases here in the UK. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be one. We’re trawling through huge amounts of data associated with the attack and identifying patterns.’
Health Secretary Shona Robison said: ‘Systems are returning to normal and I would like to thank NHS staff for their hard work. It is important to emphasise that patient safety is paramount and there is no evidence that patient data has been compromised.’
A spokesman for NHS Lanarkshire apologised for the cancelled appointments and said it was rescheduling them.
‘Don’t know when Gregor will be seen’