No Blood Tests At Tessa Jowell/Kings College Hospital Or Anywhere Near Here For At Least A Month

[sandyman]

I was due to have a routine annual blood test and popped in this morning to pick up a referral. Unfortunately due to the recent cyber attack I was told there will be no blood tests at all at Tessa Jowell for the next month. They weren't even able to access my referral so that i could take it somewhere else. They said it might reopen sooner and I should check in every week but they thought at least a month. This has apparently not just affected Tessa Jowell but everywhere using the same system as Kings NHS. 

Bit more info here, though it was not exactly my experience. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd115yw8pd3o

BBC story says they can still deal with serious cases but that wasn't the impression I got.

Has anyone else had this problem and navigated an alternative?

Edited June 17, 2024 by sandyman
clarification of title

[Alec1]

This is from the Swiftqueue booking system.

IMPORTANT NOTICE - All routine phlebotomy services have now been paused until further notice at King’s College Hospital and the Tessa Jowell Healthcare Centre. If your clinician tells you your blood test is clinically urgent, please attend the phlebotomy clinic at King’s College Hospital. If you have a GP referral, your GP must indicate that your test is ‘Urgent’ on the form, otherwise we are unable to see you. You do not need to book an appointment in advance using Swiftqueue, however please turn up between the hours of 08.00 and 17:00 at King’s College Hospital where you can make a same day appointment within the clinic. We are incredibly sorry for any upset or inconvenience this has caused you. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

 

[Rockets]

Apparently they have had to isolate the testing facility/company from the rest of the network and staff have had to revert to paper communication.

[dresswaves]

Yes I had a blood test booked at Tessa Jowell for the 1st day of this crisis, 4 June & received a text cancelling the night before. GP surgery don’t know when it will be sorted but we’re saying check back beginning of July. 
A BBC tv report last week showed operations being cancelled at Kings & urgent cases being transferred to St George’s. Blood tests are being done for patients at Kings but they are taking much longer as they cannot use the software to process & everything has to be double checked manually.

As my tests are not urgent I’ll just wait until they are up & running again.

[malumbu]

Due to Russian cyber attack, nasty leader

[thfc2001]

If you have urgent tests they call you and get you to come into Kings - you don't need to book, its just walk in (and was a lot quieter than usual when I went in last week). Tessa Jowell are taking bookings from 2 July on Swiftqueue, when I checked a little while ago...

[NewWave]

I had a blood test booked for monday 17th..I booked it on the 5th June and that was first date available due to the cyber attack.

I got a confermation text took the morning off work turned up the health centre to be told no blood tests unless deemed urgent by the GP and they had no idea when the system would be working again..I was advised to go back to my GP surgery since he referred me..I spoke to the receptionist and she kindly messaged my GP who reading my notes and the reason for the refferal deemed the test urgent and they did it that morning at my GP surgery.

I'm In Lewisham but my nearest hospital is actually Kings.

[thfc2001]

All booking dates seem to have been taken off the Swift site now, for Tessa and Kings... 

[Spartacus]

Slight deviation here, but as Synnovis could be found in breech of its data protection duties and lost patient private data, will there be consequences for them and possibility of loosing the contract  🤔 

Has anyone who has had their data breached been contacted? 

[Penguin68]

I don't think a cyber attack by criminals actually counts as being 'in breach of its data protection duties'. It would have to be demonstrated that Synnovis was willfully careless. Hospitals have also been  attacked similarly. If your house was burgled and your address book stolen would you anticipate being charged under data protection legislation?

[alice]

There’s a shortage of blood. Southwark has a Twitter post asking for people to come into these dropping centres to give blood. Someone with better IT skills than me may be able to provide the link. 

[Sue]

3 hours ago, alice said:

There’s a shortage of blood. Southwark has a Twitter post asking for people to come into these dropping centres to give blood. Someone with better IT skills than me may be able to provide the link. 

Isn't that a completely separate issue?

Surely blood tests are to aid in diagnosis or to monitor an already known illness, whereas blood is needed for transfusions?

[Jenijenjen]

They are calling for donors with O type blood to come forward and donate:

"For surgeries and procedures requiring blood to take place, hospitals need to use O type blood as this is safe to use for all patients.

"That means more units of these types of blood than usual will be required over the coming weeks to support the wider efforts of frontline staff to keep services running safely for local patients."

Looks like I'm going to be losing very nearly an armful ...

(Boomer joke from 1961)

https://www.healthwatchsouthwark.org/news/2024-06-11/o-positive-and-o-negative-donors-asked-urgently-book-appointment-give-blood

[Penguin68]

26 minutes ago, Sue said:

Surely blood tests are to aid in diagnosis or to monitor an already known illness, whereas blood is needed for transfusions?

Blood tests are also required to determine blood-type for cross-matching for transfusions - whilst that facility is down/ much reduced having large(r)  supplies of Type O is a necessary precaution, as this can be used across multiple blood types. So, having more Type O means that fewer cross-matching tests need to be done.

[jazzer]

5 hours ago, Penguin68 said:

I don't think a cyber attack by criminals actually counts as being 'in breach of its data protection duties'. It would have to be demonstrated that Synnovis was willfully careless. Hospitals have also been  attacked similarly. If your house was burgled and your address book stolen would you anticipate being charged under data protection legislation?

Have to disagree, I believe they have a responsibility under GDPR to hold safely all data they have on patients, they've clearly failed as the data has been breached. 

[heartblock]

They have responsibilities for data protection. If testing was on site and run internally - rather than outsourced this would have not occurred. 

[jazzer]

IMO its the responsibility of the outsourced company to protect the data they hold, as such any breach of GDPR should have consequences for the company.