All Routine Blood Test Appointments Cancelled
We regret to inform patients that all routine Phlebotomy (blood test) appointments have been cancelled until further notice, due to a cyber attack affecting the NHS across South East London.
The ransomware cyber-attack on Synnovis is continuing to cause 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.
All urgent and emergency services remain open as usual and the majority of outpatient services continue to operate as normal.
Unfortunately, some operations and procedures which rely more heavily on pathology services have been postponed, and blood testing is being prioritised for the most urgent cases, meaning patients have had phlebotomy appointments cancelled.
We are sorry to all patients impacted and NHS staff will work hard to re-arrange appointments and treatments as quickly as possible.
Patients should access services in the normal way by dialling 999 in an emergency and otherwise use NHS 111 through the NHS App, online or on the phone. Patients should continue to attend appointments unless they are told otherwise by the clinic team.
NHS England has deployed a cyber incident response team, which is working round the clock to support Synnovis and provide emergency guidance, as well as coordinating with health services across the capital to minimise disruption to patient care.
How does this affect Wickham Park Surgery operations?
Synnovis has asked for patients to delay having non-urgent bloods taken until further notice and asked phlebotomy providers to cancel non-urgent appointments. This means Wickham Park Surgery will be cancelling all non-urgent Phlebotomy appointments until further notice, as there is no capability to process samples and return them at this time.
We are no longer booking appointments for routine phlebotomy until further notice. You will be unable to book a routine blood test for June or July.
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?”
Yes, we are experiencing delays in publishing test results. We apologise for the inconvenience. We advise that you please keep in contact with to see if there is any further information regarding results.
“What will happen now to my booked blood test appointment?”
With the situation ongoing, we are working to restore a usual service. At the moment, all appointments for this month have been cancelled. Unless you have been told otherwise, please continue to attend all other appointments.
“I would like to book a blood test, can I still do this?”
No. Due to the current situation, we have made the decision to block bookings for appointments as we cannot promise at this stage that your selected date/time will be fulfilled. We hope normal service will resume as soon as possible and we will inform you if your appointment has been cancelled. Please continue to attend all appointments unless told otherwise.
“I have an appointment booked in a few weeks, should I cancel?”
Our advice is that you should keep your appointment, as we hope to resume normal service as soon as possible. Should the situation continue to disrupt our service, we will let you know if your appointment has been cancelled. Please continue to attend all appointments unless told otherwise.
Thank you for your understanding, we hope this issue will be resolved as soon as possible.