NHS cyberattack: Patients tell of 'chaos' as doctors lost drugs and tests
Hospital patients tell Sky News how doctors and nurses struggled to cope when the cyberattack hit, sparking "pandemonium".
Monday 15 May 2017 09:43, UK
Patients have told how hospitals descended into "pandemonium" and "chaos" as medical staff lost track of blood tests and drugs when the cyberattack hit.
Julie Maddison, who has a rare type of dwarfism, said York Hospital Accident and Emergency was gripped by "pandemonium" because of the speed at which the attack shut down patient records.
Ms Maddison, who is on controlled drugs, had been taken in by ambulance after becoming unable to move following surgery last week.
She says doctors lost her drugs and her records and in the end her family decided she would be better off at home so she discharged herself from the hospital.
She said: "I take quite a lot of medication and it is controlled drugs, and they didn't even know where my controlled drugs were, which is frightening.
"I was absolutely terrified, not just for myself but what if somebody else had got hold of them... It could have killed them."
She condemned the attackers as "despicable", saying they "could have killed somebody" and that they should be "so ashamed of themselves".
The malicious software behind the attack appeared to exploit a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows XP that was supposedly identified by the National Security Agency.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd said that hospitals had been told by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to update their computer systems and added it was "disappointing" this had not been done.
A statement from Warrington and Halton Hospitals Trust on Saturday morning said: "The Trust has back-up and support systems in place to ensure we can continue to function as normal - no surgeries have been cancelled and patients should attend as planned for their appointments and procedures."
At the Royal London Hospital on Saturday morning, patients were being turned away.
One man told Sky News: "They wouldn't let me in. They said it was actually patient safety and they locked some of the doors that led into the hospital so patients for outpatients or dermatology couldn't even get in there.
"So I've just shrugged my shoulders. And I am lucky that what I have got is no terrible big deal but there was a lady standing next to me who came from Barts and been waiting a year. She's less happy."