NHS open for business but hospitals suffering disruption

No second wave of attacks means situation is now improving

The NHS has been declared “open for business” but some hospitals are still suffering disruption caused by the crippling ransomware attack.

Large swathes of the NHS have been paralysed by the cyber attack, which hit 200,000 victims in 150 countries around the world.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt confirmed there had not been a second wave of attacks on NHS trusts and said it was “encouraging” that the level of criminal activity was at “the lower end of the range” anticipated.

NHS England said that, as of 3pm yesterday, two hospitals remained on divert following the attack, down from seven on Sunday.

Dr Anne Rainsberry, national incident director at NHS England, said: “There are encouraging signs that the situation is improving, with fewer hospitals having to divert patients from their A&E units.

“The message to patients is clear: the NHS is open for business. Staff are working hard to ensure that the small number of organisations still affected return to normal shortly.”

Mr Hunt has come under fire for failing to appear in public since the attack, which hit 47 trusts in England and 13 Scottish health boards.

In his first public comments since the attack on Friday, Mr Hunt told Sky News: “I have this morning been briefed by GCHQ and the National Cyber Security Centre, and according to our latest intelligence, we have not seen a second wave of attacks and the level of criminal activity is at the lower end of the range that we had anticipated, and so I think that is encouraging.”

He added: “Although we have never seen anything on this scale when it comes to ransomware attacks, they are relatively common and there are things that you can do, that everyone can do, all of us can do, to protect ourselves against them.”

The health service has been rebuked for using the outdated Windows XP operating system to store digital information, despite security updates for the software having been discontinued by Microsoft.

NHS Digital said it had made health trusts aware last month of IT protection that could have prevented the damage.

There are encouraging signs

The health service has been rebuked for using the outdated Windows XP operating system.