The Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Trust has disclosed a significant cyber security incident that has forced hospital authorities to cancel outpatient appointments and other non-emergency procedures.
Located in North West England, Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust provides healthcare services in the Wirral Peninsula and the surrounding areas. The trust is responsible for Arrow Park Hospital, Clatterbridge Hospital, and Wirral Women and Children’s Hospital. It also provides some services at St Catherine’s Health Centre, Tranmere and Victoria Central Health Centre, Wallasey.
In a statement on the website, a spokesperson for the trust said that “a major incident has been declared at the Trust for cyber security reasons.”
While the details of the incident including the nature and scope of the same are yet to be revealed to the public, the spokesperson said that the incident forced the trust to cancel scheduled outpatient appointments.
“Our business continuity processes are in place, and our priority remains ensuring patient safety. We apologise for any inconvenience and we will contact our patients as soon as possible to rearrange.
“We urge all members of the public to attend the Emergency Department only for genuine emergencies. For non-urgent health concerns, please use NHS 111, visit a walk-in centre, urgent treatment centre, your GP, or pharmacist,” the spokesperson added.
In a statement shared with Liverpool Echo, a staff member added, “Everything is down. Everything is done electronically so there’s no access to records, results or anything so we are having to do everything manually, which is really difficult. The damage is huge.”
Earlier this year, NHS Dumfries and Galloway also suffered a significant cyber security incident that affected daily operations and gave hackers access to “a significant quantity of data”.
The INC Ransom group claimed responsibility for the cyber attack on NHS D&G and listed the trust as a victim on its data leak site. The group claimed to be in possession of 3 terabytes of data stolen from the trust and shared several samples of the stolen data online to prove its authenticity.
