WARRINGTON Hospital has NOT been hit by a large-scale cyber-attack which has locked staff out of their computers and forced many trusts to divert emergency patients at numerous NHS sites across the country.
Following reports of the cyber attacks during Friday afternoon, Warrington & Halton Hospitals NHS Trust called a meeting of more than 30 senior team members and some pre-cautionary measures were implemented involving staff deciding to shut down their emails.
But it is currently “business as usual” in Warrington.
IT systems of NHS sites across the country appear to have been simultaneously hit, with a pop-up message demanding a ransom in exchange for access tocomputers.
NHS England has declared a major incident.
Details of patient records and appointment schedules, as well as internal phone lines and emails, have all been rendered inaccessible, causing disruption to services across the country.
A spokesperson for NHS Digital said: “A number of NHS organisations have reported to NHS Digital that they have been affected by a ransomware attack which is affecting a number of different organisations.
“The investigation is at an early stage but we believe the malware variant is Wanna Decryptor. At this stage we do not have any evidence that patient data has been accessed. We will continue to work with affected organisations to confirm this.
“NHS Digital is working closely with the National Cyber Security Centre, the Department of Health and NHS England to support affected organisations and to recommend appropriate mitigations.
“This attack was not specifically targeted at the NHS and is affecting organisations from across a range of sectors.
“Our focus is on supporting organisations to manage the incident swiftly and decisively, but we will continue to communicate with NHS colleagues and will share more information as it becomes available.”
Affected hospitals are believed to include those run by East and North Hertfordshire NHS trust, Barts Health in London, Essex Partnership university NHS trusts, the university hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS foundation trust, Southport and Ormskirk hospital NHS trust and Blackpool teaching hospital NHS foundation trust.
Late Fri afternoon but 30+ Senior team response/preparation meeting @WHHNHS, led by @Mel_Pickup in case hit by #nhscyberattack #responsive pic.twitter.com/uHiGz5C9pu
— Mark Forrest (@Obidoc) May 12, 2017
