The NHS cyberattack: where has the patient data gone?
Hour two of the cyberattack coverage, live on Sky News: the NHS was coping, but a call for broadcasters to hold power to account on where the patient data had gone, why the NHS data set is one of the country's most valuable resources, and how staff cope when the systems go down.
On the day
By the second hour the official line was settling: people were responding well, the NHS was coping. That was broadly true, and I said so. But coping is not the same as answered, and the question I most wanted asked was a simple one: where has the patient data gone, and who is accountable for it? The NHS data set is one of the most valuable things this country holds. If broadcasters were going to give the story airtime, I wanted them to hold the right people to account for keeping it safe.
What I said
The presenter’s questions are paraphrased. My answers are my own words from the recording, lightly edited for reading clarity; every turn has been checked against the recording.
Stephen Dixon paraphrased, from 0:00
Turning to me for more reaction, the presenter noted that the message coming through was that people were responding well and the NHS was coping, but put it to me that the service was surely on its knees where it had been hit.
Dr Kishan Rees from the recording, 0:21
No, I think it is coping at the moment, and that is an important point. But one thing I would certainly like to see from Sky and the other major broadcasters is holding the relevant people to account, and making sure the patient data is safe. Where has it gone? We don’t know at the moment. This only broke last night, and it is a vital issue, because the NHS data set is one of this country’s most valuable resources. As we move into a digital economy, big data is critical. I think it would reassure people to know it stays in the public domain that the patient data is backed up, and that backing it up is an absolute protocol. Because if you lose that data, you have to start from scratch.
Stephen Dixon paraphrased, from 1:04
That would make the job ten times worse, the presenter said.
Dr Kishan Rees from the recording, 1:07
Absolutely, and it makes it harder. I don’t know enough about how the data has been backed up. I certainly hope it has been. But equally, one might have hoped you wouldn’t be running 17-year-old operating systems, so who knows. I don’t think we really know the complete picture at the moment.
Stephen Dixon paraphrased, from 1:23
How difficult was it going to be, he asked, for staff in A&E, and across the hospitals and GP surgeries also affected, to operate under these conditions?
Dr Kishan Rees from the recording, 1:33
Maybe surprisingly, it might be okay for a lot of places, in the sense that staff are used to working when computer systems go down. It is not as if doctors and nurses are unaware of how to operate in those situations. And they can be helped, as I mentioned earlier: if people bring in their records, and if family members attend with, say, elderly relatives who may not be able to articulate their own history, that would also speed people through.
Broadcast by Sky News, 13 May 2017; clip from the WatMed Media archive, my own upload. Sky News retains the rights in the broadcast. This page carries my own contributions with the presenter’s questions paraphrased, credits the programme, and I will amend or remove on request.