Patient death linked to cyber attack on NHS, hospital trust says

The death of a person has been linked to last year's cyber attack on the NHS.

The attack saw 1,100 cancer treatments delayed, 2,000 outpatient appointments cancelled and more than 1,000 operations postponed when cyber criminals attacked two major NHS trusts.

Now, the first death of a patient linked to the attack has been confirmed by King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

"One patient sadly died unexpectedly during the cyber attack," said a spokesperson.

"The patient safety incident investigation identified a number of contributing factors that led to the patient's death.

"This included a long wait for a blood test result due to the cyber attack impacting pathology services at the time.

"We have met with the patient's family, and shared the findings of the safety investigation with them."

Synnovis, which provides services primarily in southeast London, was the victim of a ransomware attack, understood to be carried out by Russian group Qilin, on 3 June last year.

Sensitive data stolen from an NHS provider in a cyber attack was apparently published online.

NHS England said a criminal group claimed it has released patient information hacked from Synnovis, which provides pathology services on blood tests.

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