Data – shared 24 June 2024
NHS England continues to work with Synnovis and the National Crime Agency to respond to the criminal ransomware attack on Synnovis systems.
Synnovis has now confirmed through an initial analysis that the data published by a cyber crime group has been stolen from some of their systems.
We understand people may be concerned by this, and Synnovis are working at pace to carry out the further analysis required to understand the full scale and nature of the data released and patients impacted.
At present, Synnovis has confirmed there is no evidence the cyber criminals have published a copy of the database (Laboratory Information Management System) where patient test requests and results are stored, although their investigations are ongoing.
As more detail becomes available through Synnovis’ full investigation, the NHS will continue to provide updates here and a helpline has been set up to support people impacted.
Investigations of this type are complex and can take time. Given the complexity of the investigation it may be some weeks before it is clear which individuals have been impacted.
Local health systems will continue to work together to manage the impact on patients with additional resources put in to ensure urgent blood samples can still be processed, while laboratories are now able to see historic patient records.
Patients should continue to attend their appointments unless they have been told otherwise and should access urgent care as they usually would.
Cancelled tests – shared 20 June 2024
Synnovis will be sending information to practices to update them on a significant number of cancelled tests. All unprocessed samples received since the cyberattack were stabilised and stored in laboratories. Due to the volume of demand and the capacity available, Synnovis have been able to undertake Full Blood Counts on some of these samples and, in those instances, the results will already have been returned to practices electronically.
Regrettably, some of the remaining samples received that haven’t been processed yet are no longer suitable for analysis as they will have degraded, meaning that tests cannot be undertaken reliably. Synnovis has cancelled these tests and are very sorry for the understandable upset and inconvenience this may cause to you and your patients. Practices have started to receive reports on these and will do so in a staggered manner to ensure access to rebooked tests.
The reports will arrive to named individuals in your practice from two possible email addresses – Karen Ashworth and Kiran Hoolsy. We recommend practices use the prioritisation guidance when reviewing these reports.