Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

NHS cyber attacks hit Dundee medical centres

Post Thumbnail

A cyber attack causing chaos to computer systems across England has infected computers in medical centres in Scotland, including Dundee.

Hawkhill Medical Centre said their computers were hit by a “ransomware” virus on Friday afternoon, which affected how staff could access patient records.

Non-emergency patients have been advised to put off visiting the surgery until Tuesday, unless it is absolutely essential they see a doctor or nurse.

Ten Tayside GP surgeries are thought to have been attacked by the virus, which shows a striking “demand notice” asking for a ransom of online currency Bitcoin.

A red screen reading a message asking for payment, alongside a countdown clock, has been reported on screens, which threaten to delete files if money is not transferred.

  • For more on this developing story, see Saturday’s Courier

Dr Andrew Cowie, of Hawkhill Medical Centre, said: “This attack could affect our IT systems over the course of the weekend, and we will be open on Monday but we cannot guarantee the systems will be back up and running by then.

“Computers are essential to the modern operation of the health service, we use them for a whole number of reasons and we are aware of the risks faced by IT systems every day.

“We are advising that if you can wait to see a member of staff at Hawkhill until Tuesday then please do, and if you do have an emergency we will of course be open on Monday morning as normal.

“Fingers crossed the problem can be fixed as quickly as possible.”

There are also reports of problems in NHS Forth Valley.

As reported by The Courier, the health service in Tayside is subjected to thousands of online threats a week.

A spokesperson for NHS Tayside said: “No NHS Tayside systems or hospital sites have been affected by Friday’s UK-wide cyber attack. There is no impact on NHS Tayside’s emergency departments or out-of-hours service.

“However, we are aware that the IT systems at 10 GP practices across Tayside, which operate on a non-NHS Tayside system have been affected. Our eHealth team is working with the GPs to resolve the issue as soon as possible.”

Hospitals in England have been shut down by the attack, and several hospital trusts including NHS Mid-Essex and East and North Hertfordshire have said they are suffering significant IT systems problems.

NHS Digital said 16 organisations within the health service had seen their IT systems affected as of 3.30pm by a ransomware attack, using malware called “Wanna Decryptor”.

An NHS Digital spokesman said: ” At this stage we do not have any evidence that patient data has been accessed.

“We will continue to work with affected organisations to confirm this.”