Mid Cheshire hit by Conficker worm

Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been hit by the Conficker worm.

The trust said its antivirus software identified a potential virus on Wednesday 20 January, which affected around 85 PCs, or 3% of the PCs across the trust's network. One of these was at the Victoria Infirmary in Northwich, while the rest were at Leighton Hospital.

Sources have suggested that the worm attacked the hospital's computers through an infected PACS image. However, the trust said that preliminary investigations indicated that the worm was introduced via a USB device.

In a statement to E-Health Insider the trust said: “At this stage, it is unlikely that the infection was as a result of a PACS image, although a thorough investigation will determine whether this is the case.

“As part of the trust’s internal processes, we will continue to monitor the situation and have procedures in place to check all non-affected machines.”

The trust also said that as a matter of policy all IT equipment is protected with antivirus software and that its internet gateway is protected by an intrusion prevention system, which monitors all incoming and outgoing traffic.

The Conficker worm is well known, accounting for as many as a third of computer infections worldwide.

In the NHS, there was a confirmed outbreak affected hundreds of computers at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust a year ago.

Mid Cheshire said no core clinical systems were affected and the virus has not impacted on patient care or appointments.

The spokesperson said: “The virus only affected Windows applications and did not affect clinical systems such as PACS. Patient and clinical information is secure and has not been affected. Critical non clinical information was accessible through non-affected or cleaned PCs.”

Over the past few days there has been local speculation that nearby trusts, including The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, had also been infected by the worm. However, The Christie said this was not true.

John Glover, deputy chief information officer at The Christie, told EHI: “I can confirm that we have not been affected by the Conficker worm.

"Last year, a trust in the Greater Manchester area was affected and we took the opportunity then to find out about the virus and make sure that we were fully protected.”