Wirral NHS cyberattack leads to missed cancer care targets The Register

pNHS execs admit that last years cyberattack on hospitals in Wirral northwest England continues to significantly impact waiting times for cancer treatments and suspect this will last for monthsppDuring the attack which began on November 25 2024 the main clinical system was pulled offline and by December 5 the teams were still battling to get systems back online The hospitals said criminals broke in via a shared digital gateway service causing them to resort to pen and paper operations and cancel outpatients appointmentsppA weekbyweek breakdown of the Wirral University Teaching Hospitals WUTH trusts progress in meeting NHS waiting time targets showed that in December the number of patients waiting for cancer treatment soared to the highest levels seen in 2024ppThe NHS sets all regional trusts metrics for treating cancer patients One of these is the 62day referral to treatment RTT standard which aims to provide patients with their first course of treatment within 62 days of being referred for an initial diagnosis ppWUTHs December data showed the number of 62day waiters exceeded 100 for every week in the month the first time that has happened since June The number of waiters also rose to the highest weekly number all year by the time December 30 came around with the total standing at 174ppFor comparison the number hadnt risen above 90 throughout the entirety of the three months priorppThe trusts performance against the 104day standard whereby cancer patients wait for 104 days or longer to receive their first treatment also dropped to uncommonly noncompliant levels ppThe five weeks in December saw the number of 104day waiters rise to unacceptable levels WUTH had only recorded two other weeks throughout the year that fell short of the standard with all others meeting it and in most cases doing so comfortablyppThe clinical divisions are continuously working through options to reduce the backlogs of patients awaiting elective treatment and progress is being made to improve waiting times for patients wrote Hayley Kendall COO and deputy CEO at WUTH trust in a recent board of directors update PDFppThe cyber incident was seen to impact elective performance both in terms of the loss of activity that would have provided treatmentdiagnostic and stopped waiting times for patients and on the ability to validate the waiting times position Performance across RTT cancer and diagnostics was affected Operational teams are working through plans to recover lost activityppKendall noted that meeting the waiting standards postCOVID is still a work in progress but said that prior to the cyberattack in late November this was advancing positively ppHowever the attack which bled into early December is expected to continue impacting patient care throughout January Despite the report being published on January 29 the data covered in it only concerns MarchDecember 2024ppKendall said that its normal for a dip in performance to be seen around the Christmas months due to predictable staffing issues but the cyberattack exacerbated this impacting cancer treatment performance and she said it would take a number of months for the caregivers to recoverppThe cyberattack also impacted other areas of WUTHs ability to care for general outpatients and inpatients during December Kendall said gynecology was the worst affected for 65week and 52week waiters although signs of improvement were showing in JanuaryppOverall WUTH missed many of its treatment targets for December Kendall attributed this mainly to the cyberattack which led to canceled appointments and elective procedures She also mentioned the interruption of recording activity to Cerner the Oracleowned health system used for administering electronic prescriptions although she said staff are working to ensure activity is properly recorded as part of the cyber cleanupppThe Register asked the trust if Cerner was the source of the initial intrusion but it refused to comment furtherppIn the most recent report PDF to the trusts board of directors Sue Lorimer chair of the Finance Business Performance Committee hinted at the costs associated with the attack the nature of which is still unknownppIt was never claimed by a known cybercrime or ransomware outfit and when asked for more details at the time WUTH referred us back to its approved statement which merely stated a major incident was declared for cybersecurity reasonsppThe report noted that a full financial breakdown of the incident will come in future board updates but Lorimer confirmed the attack has contributed around 3 million 37 million to the trusts overall 147 million 1815 million forecasted deficitppLorimer said the trusts cash position is significantly lower than required for effective operation although additional funding requests for a total of 75 million 92 million were approved to cover January and Februarys costs The trust is also requesting 13 million 16 million to cover March approval of which is pendingppThe Committee received feedback on the response to the cybersecurity incident noting the learning from this and acknowledging the excellent response from all team membersppChris Mason WUTHs CIO told the board that while the impact on patient care suffered in December the trusts cybersecurity function continued to meet performance standards for the most partppHe said the trust responded to 100 percent of CareCERT alerts within the 72hour compliance window servers responsiveness was above the 95 percent threshold and P2 service desk targets were also metppThe team is still struggling to make a dent in the backlog of subject access requests however and Mason also pointed to a welltold cyber story especially in recent weeks that staff vacancies continued to present an issueppCyber and coding roles are among those that need filling with WUTHs Technical Infrastructure Team currently managing cybersecurity duties while the role of Cyber Manager is waiting to be filledppAn increase in staff accepting new jobs in the wider region and a number of retirements in the business intelligence and information department has grown the staffing shortfall to 139 percent as of January 29 ppSend us newsppThe Register Biting the hand that feeds ITpp
Copyright All rights reserved 19982025

p