Patients to attend Derriford Hospital as normal after cyber attack

Plymouth's hospital say most of their systems are now back up and running as normal after a cyber attack yesterday.

Much of the NHS is facing a weekend of chaos as IT experts work "around the clock" to restore vital computer systems hit by the debilitating cyber attack.

Operations and appointments were cancelled for patients across the country as up to 40 trusts in England and Scotland were hit by the ransomware, including Derriford Hospital.

A spokesperson for the Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust say "patients are asked to attend the hospital for their appointments today and tomorrow as normal".

Other health organisations shut down servers after the attack yesterday as a precautionary measure leaving hospitals and GP surgeries with a backlog of postponed appointments to deal with.

The spread of the malware is thought to have been stopped after two cyber security researchers stumbled upon a "kill switch" in the malware code, but that is cold comfort for organisations in the more than 70 countries affected.

According to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the computer virus has hit "thousands of organisations and individuals in dozens of countries".