A WIRRAL hospital has said it is “working hard to rectify the issue” after the local NHS trust was hit by a cyber attack.

Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (WUTH) said the attack was affecting all its hospitals including Arrowe Park and Clatterbridge and declared it a “major incident”.

The trust has said the incident began on Monday (November 25) and as a result told people to only attend the emergency department if they have a genuine emergency.

Hundreds of appointments have been cancelled and staff have been forced to do everything manually as systems holding records are down. 

A WUTH spokesperson said the trust was “working hard” to rectify the issue and that they were working “closely” with the national cyber security services.

In a update the trust said: “We are working hard to rectify the issue after a major incident was declared at the Trust earlier this week following a targeted cyber security issue.

“After detecting suspicious activity, as a precaution, we isolated our systems to ensure that the problem did not spread.

“This resulted in some IT systems being offline. We have reverted to our business continuity processes and are using paper rather than digital in the areas affected.

“We are working closely with the national cyber security services and we are planning to return to normal services at the earliest opportunity.

“Our staff are working tirelessly to ensure that safe patient care remains our priority.

“While services continue to be available, there has been disruption to planned services, for example, some scheduled appointments are affected.

“Unfortunately we have had to postpone some procedures which will be rescheduled. The public are advised to continue to attend any scheduled appointments, along with their appointment letters, unless contacted otherwise.

“The Trust continues to prioritise emergency treatment but there are likely to be longer than usual waiting times for unplanned treatment in our Emergency Department and assessment areas.

“We urge all members of the public to attend the Emergency Department only for genuine emergencies. In an emergency please call 999. For non-urgent health concerns, please use NHS 111, visit a walk-in centre, urgent treatment centre, your GP, or pharmacist.

“If you are attending a hospital outpatient appointment this week, please bring your appointment letter with you. This is to save you time while we are dealing with our ongoing major incident.

“If your appointment has been cancelled you will be contacted with a new appointment in due course. Thank you.”