Patients turned away and appointments cancelled after hospital declares major incident
People attending appointments at a Merseyside hospital were turned away after it was hit by a cyber security issue. Wirral University Teaching Hospitals Trust has declared a major incident at Arrowe Park Hospital due to the issue, which a staff member said meant there was no access to its systems.
An email, seen by the ECHO and sent to staff members on Monday evening, said: "A major incident has been declared at the Trust due to a cyber incident and we are working to downtime processes." A staff member at the hospital also told the ECHO: “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."
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Today, patients have been turned away from the Wirral hospital and appointments have been cancelled. One woman who was taking her nan to an appointment this morning told the ECHO: "We turned up at the Arrowe Park feature clinic for our 9.10am appointment and were told to go home.
"We were told that because of the cyber attack they couldn't take any appointments as they couldn't access any of the files or documents. They said no x-rays, no treatments and no theatres were operating today and they didn't know how long it would continue for.
"They said they think they will send people to Liverpool hospitals for some appointments eventually, but they just didn't know. There were a number of people turning up for appointments when we were there, a family with kids were all told to go home."
A Wirral University Teaching Hospitals Trust spokesperson told the ECHO on Tuesday: “A major incident has been declared at the Trust for cyber security reasons. Our business continuity processes are in place, and our priority remains ensuring patient safety. All outpatient appointments scheduled today are cancelled. 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.”