A major cyber attack which hit NHS systems is still affecting patients’ records, it has been reported. The August 4 attack affected the system used to refer patients for care, including ambulances being dispatched, out-of-hours appointment bookings and emergency prescriptions.
Three months later patients’ records are missing, safety has been compromised, and medication doses are at risk of being missed, i newspaper has reported. According to the publication, mental health patients’ records and safeguarding alerts have not been available in some trusts since the incident, when NHS software provider, Advanced, was hit by a ransomware attack.
Tens of thousands of patients could be impacted as a total of 12 NHS mental health trusts have been affected, it was reported. Advanced’s own hazard log spreadsheet allegedly said risks associated with disruption to its server include “medication doses missed”, “required number of carers not met”, “basic needs not met, such as nutrition and personal care”, and “health needs not met, such as wound care and physical support”.
Advanced told i: “We recognise that the restoration process has taken longer than we had initially anticipated and we have sought to communicate as clearly and transparently as we have been able.” A government spokesman said: “We are working closely with Advanced in supporting social care providers to minimise the impact of this incident.
“Since 2016, we have invested £300 million to build cyber resilience, and we continue to invest in the health and care sector’s cyber security – including through our ambitious Cyber Programme to drive down risk and extend protection.” At the time, the Welsh Ambulance Service described the outage as “significant”, “major” and “far-reaching” and said it affected all four nations of the UK.
An NHS spokesman said: “While Advanced work to resolve their software problems, we are supporting local health systems who are working incredibly hard to continue providing care and keep patients safe with tried and tested contingency plans in place, so the public should continue to use the NHS as normal.” It said all NHS 111 providers are back online.
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