GPs and pharmacies hit by global IT outage disrupting appointment bookings and prescriptions

IT issues are affecting the majority of GP practices in England, the NHS has said

GP surgeries and pharmacies across England have said they are unable to book appointments or access patient’s prescriptions amid a major global IT outage.

Technical issues are affecting the majority of GP practices, NHS England said, but there is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services in England.

GPs have reported having problems accessing patient records or booking appointments, while pharmacies have said they cannot access prescriptions. This could affect the delivery of medicines to patients, some pharmacies have said.

One hospital trust also declared a critical incident on Friday after they had to reschedule cancer patient’s radiotherapy appointments due to problems with the IT system.

Thousands of GPs cannot currently access the EMIS web system, which is understood to be used by around 60 per cent of practices. The system enables GPs to book appointments, examine records, and includes a clinical decision support tool as well as help with admin.

Many GPs and pharmacies have been affected by the IT outage (PA)

It is thought that around 3,700 GP practices may be affected.

The NHS said it would turn to using paper patient records and handwritten prescriptions to cope while the IT issues are ongoing.

Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust said on Friday morning that radiotherapy treatments at their hospitals had also been impacted by the outage. They have declared a critical incident, saying that they are “currently unable to deliver our scheduled radiotherapy treatments”.

A spokesperson added: “This issue has affected Varian, the IT system we use to deliver radiotherapy treatments. We have contacted our patients who were due to have radiotherapy this morning to reschedule appointments while we work to fix these issues.”

Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust told The Independent it was experiencing problems with their patient administration system. This is causing delays when new patients arrive at A&E or the maternity services as they cannot be registered on the IT system, and registrations are being processed by hand instead. The trust has not however seen an impact on scheduled appointments.

Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust said its freephone crisis line had been temporarily affected by the outage but is now back up and running.

It is thought that around 3,700 GP practices may be affected (PA Archive)

An NHS spokesperson said: “The NHS is aware of a global IT outage and an issue with EMIS, an appointment and patient record system, which is causing disruption in the majority of GP practices.

“The NHS has long-standing measures in place to manage the disruption, including using paper patient records and handwritten prescriptions, and the usual phone systems to contact your GP.

“There is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services, so people should use these services as they usually would.

“Patients should attend appointments unless told otherwise. Only contact your GP if it’s urgent, and otherwise please use 111 online or call 111."

The NHS was keen to emphasise blood donation appointments have not been affected and donors should attend as usual.

There is still an ongoing urgent need for more people with O negative blood to come forward and donate after major hospitals were impacted by a cyberattack in June.

Wilmslow Health Centre, a GP practice outside of Manchester, said all practices in the UK using the EMIS system were currently without access to their IT programmes. “We anticipate this could last for many hours. Please bear with us during this challenging time,” it wrote.

Solihull Healthcare Partnership in the West Midlands said there was a “national issue” with EMIS Web. It wrote on social media: “Unfortunately there is a national issue with EMIS Web - our clinical computer system.

“This will affect our ability to book/consult with patients this morning.”

Another post by Pocklington Group Practice in the East Riding of Yorkshire said: “Due to ongoing Windows issues affecting IT worldwide, the practice is currently unable to function as normal.

“This may result in appointments needing to be cancelled and rearranged. Updates will follow when available.”

A spokesman for the National Pharmacy Association said pharmacies were affected.

He said: “We’re aware that due to global IT outages that services in community pharmacies, including the accessing of prescriptions from GPs and medicine deliveries, are disrupted today. We urge patients to be patient whilst visiting their pharmacy.”

Health secretary Wes Streeting reacted to the news, saying: “Please bear with your local GPs if they’re grappling with this on top of normal pressures.”

The global IT issues have been caused by a defect in a software update from cyber security company CrowdStrike for Windows hosts, CrowdStrike’s CEO said on Friday morning.