An east London hospital trust says patients’ records have not been compromised after it was hit by a cyber attack last week.

Barts Health Trust, which operates four hospitals including Whipps Cross in Leytonstone, was targeted by hackers on Friday (January 13).

Staff were sent a message urging them not to open email attachments from unknown senders, over concerns its systems could be infected with ransomware.

Viruses such as ransomware are normally delivered via emails which trick the recipient into opening attachments and releasing malware onto their system in a technique known as phishing.

However, Barts Health has now confirmed all most of its computers systems were back online and the data of its patients had not been accessed.

A spokesman for the trust said: “On Friday Barts Health discovered and took immediate steps to contain a virus in the Trust's computers.

“The virus has been quarantined, and all major clinical systems are now up and running. 

“No patient data was affected, there was no unauthorised access to medical records, and our anti-virus protection has now been updated to prevent any recurrence.

“In addition to the Trust’s core clinical system Cerner Millennium, Radiology and imaging from X-rays and scans continue to be used.

“The computerised pathology results service is now back online and processing requests as normal.

“It may take a day or so to deal with the backlog that built up during the short period when we processed requests manually.”

The incident follows a similar attack on the Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Foundation Trust in October, when malware was used to encrypt files on the trust's system and demand a ransom in order to access them again.

The trust did not pay the ransom, but was forced to cancel patient appointments as its systems were shut down to remove the virus.