Update on Blood Testing in Bromley
All routine Phlebotomy (blood test) appointments continue to be cancelled until further notice, due to the cyber attack that affected the NHS across South East London.
The ransomware cyber-attack on Synnovis that caused disruption to services at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and primary care providers in south east London, has now resolved, however work continues on reducing the backlog of routine blood tests that still need to be carried out from June, which currently stands at 14,000 tests in the Bromley Borough alone.
How does this affect Wickham Park Surgery operations?
The Bromley GP Alliance (BGPA) who offer phlebotomy services for practices in the Bromley area continue to only offer appoinment for urgent and important blood tests and has asked for patients to delay having non-urgent bloods taken until further notice to help reduce the backlog.
Wickham Park Surgery sends a list of patients to the BGPA fortnightly containing all patients that are still to ahve their bloods taken since June and will slowly be inviting these patients to book their blod test appointment. If you have not been told your blood test is urgent, please wait to hear from the BGPA or the surgery to book an appointment.
We would like to offer our sincere apologies to all our patients for this disruption and we hope operations will return to normal as soon as possible.
How can I be updated?
There is a page on the ICB website with a statement on the incident. This page will be updated as the situation develops.
Frequently Asked Questions
“Is this cyber attack causing test results to be delayed?”
There is no longer a delay in the publishing of test results to practices.
“I would like to book a blood test, can I still do this?”
You will only be able to book a blood test through the BGPA if your test has been marked as urgent, or fi the BGPA contacts you directly to invite you to book an appointment from the list of patients that are still waiting for tests.
“When will things go back to normal”
Unfortunately at this present time there is no telling when routine phlebotomy services will be back up and running, BGPA continue to work to increase their capacity for blood tests by increasing clinicians and sites.