Hospitals '˜running as normal' after cyber attack

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals says all operations cancelled during last month's cyber attack have either been performed or re-scheduled.
Aerial view RPH
Royal preston hospital fulwoodAerial view RPH
Royal preston hospital fulwood
Aerial view RPH Royal preston hospital fulwood

All patients affected have been written to informing them of the new date for their procedures.

The Trust also said all computers affected by the cyber attack have now been fixed and its services are running as normal.

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A Trust spokesman said: “We did have a number of computers affected by the cyber attack but they have now all been fixed and our services are running as normal.

“Our staff worked around the clock to restore our systems as quickly as possible to ensure that our services continued to run effectively and safely for our patients.”

The Trust said a Freedom of Information (FOI) request would have to be submitted to find out the full details of how many operations were cancelled and how many computers were affected in the attack.

An FOI provides public access to information held by public authorities and can take several weeks to compile.

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The attack, which began on May 12, saw hundreds of appointments postponed and operations cancelled at Chorley and Preston hospitals.

Many computers and other electronic systems used by the NHS across Lancashire were affected for several days afterwards.

Elsewhere in the county, 1,217 computers were affected across the Fylde coast - 996 of which were at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

Seven days after the outbreak - Friday, May 19 - 95 per cent of computers had been fixed, and all affected machines on the Fylde coast were back online by last Monday.

In total it affected 47 NHS organisations and more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries with the crooks behind it reportedly earning £55,000 from the global attack.