Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was thankfully not affected by the cyberattack last Friday (12th May).
We took some urgent precautionary measures, such as shutting down our external IT systems, but all of our internal clinical systems remained active and patient care was not affected.
Patients should attend their appointments as planned and in the event of an accident or emergency, our Emergency Department is open and operating as usual.
Chief Executive Suzanne Rankin said: “We have procedures in place for an incident of this nature and I’m proud of the way we dealt with this situation as a team in a calm and expedient way. Many colleagues really went the extra mile to offer their help and support, with some members of staff working into the early hours of Saturday morning and in their own time over the weekend, to keep our systems safe. The collective effort of everybody meant we were able to continue caring for patients without disruption.”
Going forward, the Trust remains vigilant and has issued advice from NHS Improvement to all staff on dealing with incoming emails and ways to minimise the risk of viruses.
