Thousands of GP practices across England have been affected by the global IT outage, which has caused “considerable disruption” to appointment bookings and other services.
NHS England said there was an issue with the EMIS Web system, which is understood to be used by about 60% of practices in England.
The PA news agency understands that around 3,700 GP practices may be affected. People trying to access the NHS app have also encountered problems.
A spokeswoman for NHS England 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.”
GP surgeries have reported on social media that they are unable to access patient records or book appointments because of the outage.
Pharmacies also reported issues with accessing prescriptions from GP surgeries and said this would affect the delivery of medicines to patients.
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs , said: “Our members are telling us that today’s outage is causing considerable disruption to GP practice bookings and IT systems – practices using EMIS IT systems appear to be particularly affected.
“Outages like this affect our access to important clinical information about our patients, as well as our ability to book tests, make referrals, and inform the most appropriate treatment plan.
“GPs and their practice teams will do what they can to minimise the impact on patients, working hard to ensure they still get the care they need wherever possible…
“We urge all patients to please bear with us and if their issue isn’t urgent then to try and wait until the outage has been resolved.”
EMIS Web is the most widely used clinical system for primary care in the UK.
It enables GP practices to book appointments, examine records and includes a clinical decision support tool as well as helping with admin.
Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust declared a critical incident due to disruption to its radiotherapy services.
It contacted patients who were due to have treatment this morning to reschedule.
A statement on its website said the hospital is “now able to deliver radiotherapy services and this afternoon’s appointments will take place as scheduled”.
However, it warned the disruption could affect appointments into next week.
Salisbury District Hospital also confirmed in a post on social media that it has been impacted.
A spokesperson told the PA news agency: “The challenge is around our patient administration system. It means that we’ve gone to manual registration of new patients.
“This is in the emergency, maternity and other front door services where people present directly at the hospital. That process is now slow rather than being digital.
“The outage hasn’t impacted outpatients with appointments running as normal.
“One of the systems is the system used for rostering staff, which is done six weeks in advance, so we’re not seeing any staff shortages at the moment.
“However, we’re using paper systems to allocate cover.”
In another post, Barking , Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust said the outage “has affected some of our systems which is impacting some clinical services”.
West Herts Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which includes Watford General, Hemel Hempstead & St Albans City Hospitals, said the impact has been “minor”.
A post on X, formerly Twitter, said: “Patient services still running. We have only experienced a minor impact to our IT services following today’s global IT outage.
“Our patient services are up and running and you should still attend appointments as usual. We will keep you informed if this changes.
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.
“We’re urgently raising this issue with the NHS England.”
Patients with “minor ailments” are being sent to pharmacies from GP surgeries, according to the chief executive of the the Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA).
Dr Leyla Hannbeck said: “Pharmacies are experiencing delays in prescriptions arriving through (the) GP system as the systems are down, and there are also delays in receiving medicines in stock due to some wholesalers experiencing IT system failures.
“As the GP appointment system is down, more patients are being referred to pharmacies for minor ailments.”
The Wilmslow Health Centre in Cheshire wrote on X that practices “using the NHS commissioned GP computer system EMIS are currently without access to their IT systems”.
It added: “This is beyond the control of GP surgeries. Please bear with us until we have our IT systems back online.”
Solihull Healthcare Partnership in the West Midlands said there is a “national issue” with EMIS Web.
It said on X: “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.
“We will update patients when we can. We apologise for the disruption.”
Windrush Medical Practice in Witney, Oxfordshire, said it is continuing as normal but urged patients with “routine concerns” to wait until Monday.
Its post on X said: “We’re continuing as normal for urgent enquiries but ask for routine concerns to wait until Monday.
“Please continue to submit your queries through Engage Consult.”
Other GP surgeries hit by the outage have said the issue “will have a big effect”.
Central Lakes Medical Group in Ambleside wrote on X: “We’re impacted by the IT outage.
“This will have a big effect on us, so apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused, and delays on the phone.”
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.”
One GP practice website displayed the following message: “We are affected by a third-party issue that is impacting organisations globally.
“Our IT support is working with the relevant parties to restore service as soon as possible.
“We do not have access to our clinical systems and will be providing a skeleton service only. Some patients will unfortunately have to be turned away.”
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