Effective cybersecurity is fundamental to patient safety

One of the adverse consequences of the failure of IT systems (including failures attributable to cyber attacks) is the inability to access patients records. This adverse outcome can, in part, be mitigated by generating a paper-based back up system whereby patients are routinely issued with a copy of their discharge summary each time they are discharged from hospital, and a copy of their outpatient clinic letter after each outpatient clinic attendance. Optimally, each clinic letter should include a section which documents the updated problem list and the corresponding drug list so that the patient only needs to provide the healthcare team with the most recent outpatient clinic letter to get them "up to speed" with his health status in the event of an IT systems failure.

Accordingly, in the event of an IT systems failure, instead of advising patients to stay away from A & E, they should be advised to bring with them a copy of their most recent discharge summary and a copy of their most recent outpatient clinic letter. This will enable the healthcare team to put the emergency episode in its proper context even if the previous health record is inaccessible. The recent cyber attack should, therefore, be a wake up call for those hospitals which are reluctant to provide patients with the kind of documentation I have mentioned.