Following a freedom of information request it has been disclosed that More than 8,000 computer viruses have infected NHS computers over the last year, causing problems with patient records and appointments, according to official hospital documents.
The viruses caused appointments to be rescheduled without any prior notice given to patients, the loss of test results and NHS staff to be locked out of their computers for several days.
There is also the concern that personal information could have been at risk of theft, because the viruses that infected the computers are also used by hackers to steal personal information.
Because of the “infections” there were 12 incidents affecting clinical departments, therefore impacting on patient care. Some seventy-five per cent of NHS trusts across the UK responded to the request.
Fifty-one appointments or radio therapy sessions were rescheduled at Beatson cancer centre in Scotland without any prior warning. Patients showed up for critical treatment and had to be turned away.
At Barts, the Royal London and the London Chest Hospital, services were affected, including accessing blood tests, X-rays and patient administration.
A number of NHS trusts admitted in official reports that their networks were attacked because anti virus systems were turned off or not properly applied.
The NHS said that its new records system will have significantly higher levels of security than local NHS trusts have at the moment and that from this year strategic health authorities will be forced to regularly disclose when data is lost.
In a statement they said: "Electronic patient records systems are protected by the highest levels of access controls and other security measures. These levels of security are far higher than any which can be imposed on access to paper records or the majority of local NHS IT solutions."
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