National Health Service reports fatal cybersecurity attack in London

Last June, a patient in the UK died amid a ransomware attack on National Health Service systems at London hospitals.

The hackers targeted blood services and surgeries, the BBC reported this past June 25, and the patient reportedly died after waiting a long time for a blood test result.

Additionally, according to the BBC, 10,000 appointments were canceled and there were 600 related “incidents” that led to 170 patient care issues, resulting in various levels of harm.

Qilin, a Russian criminal cyber organization, is reportedly responsible for the hack.

This news comes as IT consultancy Omega Systems published its 2025 Healthcare IT Landscape Report, which found 52% of 250 healthcare executives believe a fatal cybersecurity incident is “inevitable” in a US healthcare facility over the next five years.

Additionally, about 20% of the healthcare leaders reported patient care has already been negatively affected by cyberattacks, and 80% reported they were targeted by a cyberattack in the past year.

Mark Dollar, chief executive of Synnovis, the tech company that manages patient data at the London hospitals, told the BBC the company was “deeply saddened to hear that last year’s criminal cyberattack has been identified as one of the contributing factors that led to this patient’s death.”