Cyber attack on hospitals ‘contributed to patient death’

A patient’s death was linked to a cyber attack that paralyzed NHS Blood Services to the South London Last year, he emerged.

King’s College Hospital in southern London said that an unexpectedly died “unexpectedly” during the cyber attack.

And an investigation into death revealed a “number of contributory factors”, including a “long expectation for a blood test result due to the cyber attack”.

The Synnovis pathology service provider was the victim of a ransomware attack by a Russian cyber gang in June of last year.

Consequently, more than 10,000 meetings were canceled during the two London NHS trusts which were the most affected.

And a large number of general medicine practices in London could not order blood tests for their patients.

A spokesperson for King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “A patient unfortunately died unexpectedly during the cyber attack.

“As is standard practice when this happens, we have undertaken a detailed examination of their care.

“The patient safety incident survey has identified a number of contributory factors that led to the patient’s death.

“This included a long wait for a blood test result due to the cyber attack which has an impact on the pathology services at the time.

“We met the patient’s family and shared the results of the safety survey with them.”

Earlier this month, health officials confirmed that 170 patients had suffered damage following the attack.