Barts Health NHS Trust warns of further disruption at London hospitals three days after Ransomeware cyber attack

A major cyber attack on NHS hospitals was set to cause further disruption for London patients and medics on Monday after it wreaked havoc on computer systems.

Barts Health NHS Trust said some planned appointments would still be cancelled at its hospitals, as it issued a warning that the disruption continued into this week.

After the IT system hack crept across England on Friday, the health service declared a major incident and medics were forced to cancel routine operations and divert ambulances.

And while at least 42 of the NHS Trusts affected had since returned to normal, The Royal London, St Bartholowmew's, Whipps Cross and Newham were still to get back on track.

A screenshot of the site after the IT system went down.
PA

Barts NHS Trust, which runs these hospitals, said it would contact patients with planned appointments if they could not be seen under its reduced service.

In statement issued on Sunday, it said: “Where we need to cancel planned appointments, we will be contacting patients directly to make them aware and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.

“It is possible that we will not be able to contact all patients that we need to speak to, so we apologise if we are unable to proceed with your treatment once you arrive at hospital.

“We will prioritise clinically urgent planned appointments and our clinical teams are reviewing all our appointments to inform our decisions.”

The virus reportedly struck up to 70,000 devices across the health service in the UK.

Since the weekend of chaos, the NHS said at least seven Trusts still required "extra support".

A the Royal London, which has one of the busiest A&E wards in the country, medical equipment is said to have failed as the virus spread from computer terminals to apparatus.

A message appearing on a computer at an NHS trust
PA

According to the Sunday Times, a medic told of how the automated fridges used for dispensing blood for transfusions also shut down.

"[I] tried logging in but got a blue screen saying the computer needed shutting down to protect itself,” the anonymous medic told the newspaper.

“I went back to theatre [and] was sending for a patient but got word that senior management had decided to suspend all elective surgery ... the system we use to order tests, see results, track patient location, document theatre records and writer notes in was down."

In the latest update, Chinese state media said more than 29,000 institutions across the country have been infected, along with hundreds of thousands of devices.

An international effort was underway to track down the criminals behind Friday’s unprecedented attack that wreaked havoc up and down the country.

Investigators are now working non-stop to hunt down those responsible for the Wanna Decryptor ransomware, also known as WannaCry.

Meanwhile health authorities were racing to upgrade outdated security software amid fears hackers could exploit the same vulnerability with a new virus.

The anonymous specialist, known only as MalwareTech, is said to have prevented more than 100,000 computers across the globe from being infected.

There have been calls for an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the major incident, with the Government and NHS chiefs facing questions over their preparedness and the robustness of vital systems.

Europol said its cybercrime specialists will support affected countries as a "complex international investigation" to identify the culprits begins.

Barts Health NHS Trust has apologised to patients while it still experienced disruption.

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