Synnovis ransomware attack disrupted King's College Hospital and other London trusts

A ransomware attack on Synnovis, the pathology partnership serving several NHS organizations in south east London, began on June 3, 2024 and led affected hospitals to declare a critical incident.

Synnovis is a joint venture between the private laboratory group SYNLAB and two NHS foundation trusts, Guy's and St Thomas' and King's College Hospital. The company said all of its IT systems were affected, interrupting many of its pathology services. Blood testing, transfusion services and other diagnostics could not run normally at King's College Hospital, Guy's, St Thomas', the Royal Brompton and Evelina London Children's Hospital, and at GP practices in boroughs including Bexley, Greenwich, Lewisham, Bromley, Southwark and Lambeth.

NHS England said some activity had already been cancelled or redirected to other providers, that emergency care remained available, and that patients should continue to attend appointments unless told otherwise. The government's National Cyber Security Centre and the NHS cyber operations team supported the response. Professor Ian Abbs, chief executive of Guy's and St Thomas', acknowledged the disruption and said clinical groups were coordinating the response.

In the first days after the attack neither Synnovis nor the trusts named the attacker, and it had not been established whether patient data had been taken. Disruption continued through the following weeks, with laboratory work rerouted to other providers and further planned activity cancelled.