An ongoing “major incident” has been declared at Wirral University Teaching Hospital “for cyber security reasons”, with a spokesperson sharing that all outpatient appointments scheduled for today have been cancelled, and urging the public not to attend A&E unless in the case of a “genuine emergency”.
The statement goes on to reassure the public that business continuity procedures are in place, and that the trust’s priority remains patient safety, adding “we will contact our patients as soon as possible to rearrange”.
Posts from the trust’s profile on “X” also shared the news, asking followers to retweet, and asking patients to consider using the NHS 111 service, a GP, a pharmacy, or a walk in centre.
To read the statement in full, please click here.
Cyber security across the NHS
Over on LinkedIn, we asked our audience what the biggest priority should be for health and care cyber security – board level buy-in, workforce education, funding and resources, or mandating supplier compliance? The top spot was an even split between funding and resources and mandating supplier compliance, with each option attracting 34 percent of the vote.
Last month, the Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) warned healthcare providers about Trinity Ransomware group and its focus on targeting patient data, with CEO at OmniIndex Simon Bain speaking out on the “growing threat” of this type of attack and its potential to hold hospital infrastructure “hostage and immobilised”.
In November, NHS England opened a market engagement stage, ahead of an upcoming NHS Cyber Risk Rating Platform tender, designed to support NHS organisations to “better understand their security posture” and their management of threats that could impact on operations and organisational data.
Don’t miss out! HTN is delighted to announce the launch of the HTN cyber security professional network, designed to facilitate the sharing of best practice and ideas, and discuss challenges, approaches, learning, reflections, and more around cyber security in the NHS. The network will be an extension of our current programmes on cyber security, with an aim to connect peers across the industry, taking the form of closed online discussions. Learn more about the first planned session and how to join here.
And don’t forget to check out HTN’s 2025 panel schedule, with each session on topics including cyber security aiming to bring health tech professionals together to share learnings, best practice and approaches; discuss challenges and how they can be tackled with practical reflections on what works well and what doesn’t; and look to the future to share perspectives on what the coming years will bring for transformation.
