The cyberattack suffered by the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona comes from abroad and forces the cancellation of 3,000 visits

The cyberattack that the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona has suffered since Sunday comes “from outside Spain”.

This was stated this Monday by the Generalitat, which, in collaboration with the Catalan Cybersecurity Agency and the management of the center, is working with the Mossos and Interpol to recover the information and "determine the scope" of the ransomware attack (

of data) that affects not only the three hospital sites (Villarroel, Plató and Maternitat), but also three primary care centers in Barcelona: Casanova, Borrell and Les Corts.

Antoni Castells, medical director of the Barcelona hospital, explained in an early morning appearance that "the information of the patients is complete", although they cannot access or recover it.

The Hospital Clínic has sent a statement at 7:41 p.m. on Monday announcing that the health center technicians have managed to "reactivate access to part of the affected information systems and in this way it will be possible to recover part of the planned care activity" .

This Tuesday, outpatient consultations are expected to begin to recover, although with only 10% activity.

"Patients who can be visited will receive a call from the hospital to confirm their visits and those who will be rescheduled will be notified soon," the document states.

The Clinic plans to recover this Tuesday between "40% and 50%" of the operations of the center's main headquarters.

All urgent and hospitalization activity is maintained, as well as home hospitalizations, day hospitals, radiology,

endoscopic tests, radiological examinations and ambulatory pharmacy.

Even so, the center for extractions and oncological radiotherapy continues to postpone visits and heart attacks or strokes are referred to other centers.

Sergi Marcén, Secretary of Telecommunications, has highlighted that there has been no communication with the attackers, presumably the RansomHouse group: "We are focusing on recovering the information", he said, and has announced that a cybersecurity intervention plan is being worked on that integrates the entire Catalan health system.

Marcén has specified that the hospital had backup copies of their data and that they are reviewing "if they are compromised."

He has also stated that a negotiation with those responsible for the cyberattack is not planned: "We will not pay a penny."

The Catalan Cybersecurity Agency has indicated that it is a "sophisticated and complex" cyberattack.

Tomàs Roy, its general director, has assured that

"have used new attack techniques" and that they have to discover what tools they work with.

In these types of attacks, hackers

perform two actions: on the one hand, they close

the access doors to each level of the information file and, on the other, they encrypt the files, so that they cannot be accessed and ask for a ransom in exchange, according to hospital union sources explained on Sunday.

The data recovery will be "gradual", they have reported: "Priority is given to lifting the affected services but ensuring the containment of damage.

You want to avoid persistence, that the attacker remains latent in the system”.

The hospital, sources from the center also explain, suffered a first attempted computer assault on Saturday night.

From the left, the director of the Cybersecurity Agency of Catalonia, Tomàs Roy;

the medical director of the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, ​​Antoni Castells, and the Secretary General of Telecommunications of the Generalitat, Sergi Marcén, during a press conference on the cyberattack suffered by the Hospital Clínic.Lorena Sopêna (Europa Press)

This Monday, 150 interventions have been deprogrammed and between 2,000 and 3,000 visits and between 300 and 400 tests have been cancelled.

As long as the center cannot access their medical records, they cannot be attended to because, the center reports, "the main thing is the safety of the patients."

Castells has reported that the emergencies work, although the transports are referred to the CUAPS (primary care emergency centers) and urgent cases, such as stroke codes, continue to be redirected to other hospitals in the Catalan capital.

Meanwhile, in the three hospital sites there are 800 admitted patients who are treated "normally".

For example, retrieving your paper medication plans.

Meanwhile, the activity that is maintained in the hospital has to be done on paper, as during the whole day on Sunday.

For any consultation or decision that was previously made on a screen, the medical and nursing staff must travel to other areas or services of the hospital from the floors, explain the relatives of the patients.

Or the prescriptions, in the emergency room, are written by hand, with green paper, as before the irruption of the electronic system.

Regarding access to patient records or medication plans, families and staff explained on Sunday that it was possible to access some services or floors;

in others not and in others, partially.

Or that the nurses resorted to the service sheets of the previous days.

The hospital management has also thanked the professionals who came to their posts on public holidays to lend a hand for their work.

This Monday extra personnel have also been required to make calls to notify patients of the cancellations.

Despite descheduling non-urgent surgeries and radiotherapy visits and sessions, the center maintains hospitalization on the floors and emergencies (except for stroke or heart attack codes, which will refer), in addition to the radiology service, endoscopic tests and dialysis.

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