The ransomware virus hit Synnovis, a laboratory that processes blood samples on behalf of several of London’s largest public hospitals. As a result of the attack, the hospitals have found themselves forced to cancel agreements with thousands of blood donors.
As a result, blood stocks at several London hospitals are now critically low, according to the NHS. At the same time, the need for blood is great as many blood donors are away on summer holidays, and high temperatures mean that many are dehydrated and unable to donate blood.
In the UK, there is only enough O negative blood left to meet national needs for 1.6 days, according to the NHS.
The blood type is used in acute cases where the recipient’s blood type is not known. The health service has sent out a warning to all hospitals asking them to only use the blood type in critical cases.
The combined national stock of all blood types is 4.3 days of consumption, according to the NHS.
On its own website, the healthcare system writes that the lack of blood has led to several operations and treatments being postponed. They also say that the group behind the IT attack has published data that was stolen from their systems.
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2024-07-27 16:23:03
