England's NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) has issued an urgent call to O Positive and O Negative blood donors to book appointments and donate, following a ransomware attack on pathology provider Synnovis that impacted multiple hospitals in London.
Last week, a number of hospitals in London were forced to cancel operations and divert emergency patients following a ransomware attack on a critical supplier. The incident has impacted Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts, and primary care services across South East London. The disruption was a result of a ransomware attack on Synnovis, a third-party provider of essential pathology services. A Russian cyber gang known as Qilin is believed to be behind a ransomware attack.
Blood has a shelf life of 35 days, necessitating constant replenishment of stocks. The current situation means that more units of O Positive and O Negative blood than usual are needed to support the continuous efforts of frontline staff to maintain safe and effective healthcare services for patients.
“The IT incident affecting a pathology provider means the affected hospitals cannot currently match patients’ blood at the same frequency as usual,” NHS noted. “That means more units of these types of blood than usual will be required over the coming weeks to support the wider efforts of frontline staff to keep services running safely for local patients.”