London hospitals cancel operations and appointments after being hit in ransomware attack

LONDON — Several London hospitals said Tuesday they had to cancel operations and lay off patients because of a cyberattack on a company that provides pathology laboratory services.

The Synnovis company said it had been hit by a ransomware attack. CEO Mark Dollar said the attack “has impacted all of Synnovis’ IT systems, resulting in disruptions to many of our pathology services.”

“It’s still early and we’re trying to understand exactly what has happened,” he said.

The NHS said there had been a “significant impact” on King’s College and Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospital trusts, which together run several south London hospitals, as well as clinics and doctors’ surgeries in a swath of the city.

A memo to staff said the “critical incident” had had a “significant impact” on service provision, with blood transfusions particularly affected.

NHS England’s London region said in a statement it was “urgently working to fully understand the impact of the incident with the support of the government’s National Cyber ​​Security Center and our cyber operations team.”

Oliver Dowson, 70, was set for an operation from 6am on Monday at the Royal Brompton Hospital, but at around 12.30pm a surgeon told him it would not happen.

“Ward staff didn’t seem to know what had happened, just that many patients were being told to go home and wait for a new date,” he said. “They’ve given me a date for next Tuesday and I’m crossing my fingers.”

Ransomware attacks They involve criminals crippling computer systems with malware and then demanding money to free them. Ransomware is the most costly and disruptive form of cybercrime, crippling local governments, court systems, hospitals and schools, as well as businesses. It is difficult to combat since most gangs are based in former Soviet states and are beyond the reach of Western justice.

Britain’s state-funded healthcare system has been hit before, including during a ransomware attack in 2017 that froze computers in hospitals across the country, shut down wards, closed emergency rooms and halted treatment.