Major London hospitals declare a ‘critical incident’

Major hospitals in London have declared “critical incidents” and have been forced to cancel operations and blood transfusions after being hit with a “major IT incident.”

Synnovis who are a provider of pathology services sent a memo to St Thomas’ (including the Royal Brompton and the Evelina London Children’s Hospital), NHS Staff at King’s College Hospital and primary care services in London.

Synnovis formed a partnership with St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and SynLab UK & Ireland.

Accorind to Synnovis website, they are “one of the largest pathology service providers in the UK” and they provide “fast testing services and state-of-the-art laboratories”

The memo’s said that as a result of the “critical incident” hospitals in London have been hit with a “major impact” on their services.

Several senior sources have told the Health Service Journal (HSJ) confirmed the ransomware attack, one said instead of “days” pathology results will now take “weeks.”

Sky News’ science and technology editor Tom Clarke said, “Non-essential transfusions were paused when the incident emerged.

Anyone needing emergency transfusions, they’re having to proceed with pen and paper as I understand it. Obviously, that will slow down the matching of blood and things like that.”