Cancellation of non-urgent blood tests across south east London
Owing to a cyber-attack affecting an NHS pathology service provider known as Synnovis, all non-urgent primary care blood tests have been paused until further notice across south east London. This affects all blood tests that happen in community and primary care clinics, requested on a non-urgent basis by primary care/GPs.
Synnovis is used by Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
To support our neighbouring hospitals, Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust are also cancelling non-urgent blood tests, to enable blood tests to be done across south east London for patients with the most urgent clinical needs. All appointments made via Swiftqueue for this week up until the end of Friday 8 June will automatically receive a cancellation notice.
We are incredibly sorry for any inconvenience caused. The hospitals are working hard to minimise the impact and restore services.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
An NHS London spokesperson said: “The ransomware cyber-attack on Synnovis is continuing to cause disruption to services at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and primary care providers in south east London.
“All urgent and emergency services remain open as usual and the majority of outpatient services continue to operate as normal.
“Unfortunately, some operations and procedures which rely more heavily on pathology services have been postponed, and blood testing is being prioritised for the most urgent cases, meaning patients have had phlebotomy appointments cancelled.
“We are sorry to all patients impacted and NHS staff will work hard to re-arrange appointments and treatments as quickly as possible.
“Patients should access services in the normal way by dialling 999 in an emergency and otherwise use NHS 111 through the NHS App, online or on the phone. Patients should continue to attend appointments unless they are told otherwise by the clinic team.
“NHS England has deployed a cyber incident response team, which is working round the clock to support Synnovis and provide emergency guidance, as well as coordinating with health services across the capital to minimise disruption to patient care.”