IT failure blamed for latest NHS disease hit

The UK’s National Health Service’s (NHS) capacity to deliver disease services is taking another hit, with a serious incident reported this morning at two hospitals in England.

In contrast to the issues affecting London hospitals, the incident at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) was not believed to be caused by a cyberattack, but rather by “nondescript” IT.

The City Hospital and Queen’s Medical Centre, both outside central Nottingham, were each struggling to provide services, with all phlebotomy patients having to have blood drawn and examined locally. these are requested to be absent until further notice.

“People should continue to attend other scheduled meetings unless otherwise notified,” read a notice on its website.

“There will continue to be delays in service while we work on a solution. This affects blood tests from within the Trust and from GP colleagues. Business plans remain there and we are working to prioritize urgent blood tests, including cancer. and pre-op services.”

Shortly before the announcement, Nottingham NHS trust said Registration that the designation of “critical incident” related to “IT issues in our Pathology service” was now “suspended.”

It said the affected systems are “back to normal… and we are now operating business as usual. Patients can now attend phlebotomy (blood test) services at City Hospital and QMC, including the Treatment Centre, for of regular testing. GP colleagues are advised to return to business as usual testing from 2pm (BST) this afternoon”

It added: “We would like to thank all our colleagues, patients and our partner organizations for your support and dedication in responding to this incident and protecting patient care.”

Registration asked NUH for more information about the incident, including details about which system or systems were affected, whether patient data is considered secure, and what efforts have been made of correction, but did not answer these questions.

Outside of emergency services, patients were earlier today advised to use the NHS non-emergency helpline 111 to relieve pressure on emergency services, and to visit A&E departments if necessary.

The incident comes months after an attack on Synnovis, a provider of disease services at Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts, and primary care services in south-east London.

However, this was a far worse event. The Qilin ransomware attack caused widespread disruption for months, and led to the dire consequences of not being able to provide full healthcare services.

According to the latest NHS update on the matter, after 13 weeks of disruption which has resulted in appointments and procedures being cancelled, a total of 10,129 outpatient appointments and 1,702 procedures The options have since been transferred to two NHS trusts in London. attack.

The NHS is also continuing its call to donate type O blood. The appeal for more blood was launched last week, days after the attack, as demand for supplies increased due to the decline in contributions and the attack itself.

Elsewhere in the UK, London’s transport authority, Transport for London (TfL), is moving on from a “cybersecurity incident.” Its event status page is being updated daily, and eagle-eyed observers noticed on Tuesday that it had removed a reference to “there is no evidence that any customer data it has been destroyed.”

Tewkesbury Borough Council is also working to get its services back online following its “cyber incident” last week. Its latest update shared by chief executive Alistair Cunningham suggested that no citizen data was affected. ®