The surgery added: “GP surgeries across the country affected by major IT outage. We anticipate this could last for many hours. Please bear with us during this challenging time.”
The Church Lane Surgery in Brighouse, West Yorkshire, posted on X that “our clinical system has not been working since 7am this morning.
“We have no access to patient clinical records so are unable to book appointments or provide information… This is a national problem and is being worked on as a high priority.”
Prof 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.”
One hospital also said patients could expect delays due to its “administrative services” being affected by the outage.
Salisbury District Hospital, in Wiltshire, said: “We are suffering some delays at our hospital with our administrative services due to the global IT outage. We ask patients and visitors to please bear with us as we use alternative methods.”
An NHS source said hospitals would feel the knock-on effect either way if systems they “interact with are offline”.
Patients are also unable to view their own medical records, which are available to view online on the NHS App after the services went down.
An NHS England spokesman said of hospital disruption: “There are … some issues with administrative systems in hospitals that mean staff are having to work manually from paper to manage certain tasks but in the majority of hospitals, care is continuing as normal.”
NHS cyber attack fallout
The global problems have caused many Windows operating systems to shut down.
Cyber security engineers examining problems in other sectors have pointed to a problem with Crowdstrike, a piece of antivirus software which appears to cause computers to crash.
The health service is still battling the fallout from a cyber attack thought to have been carried out by Russian hackers, which has affected hospitals.
More than 7,000 outpatient appointments and over 1,500 elective procedures have been postponed at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust since the cyber attack on June 3.
Health officials said the problems are affecting EMIS Web, the national GP booking system. So far hospitals and 999 services are not thought to have been affected.
Solihull Healthcare Partnership in the West Midlands said there is a “national issue” with EMIS Web.
Writing on X, it said: “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.”
Doctors share tips
Doctors have been sharing tips online with each other to work around the IT outage affecting the EMIS service.
The service impacted is the one that GPs use to access patient medical records. It is thought to be used by more than half of GP surgeries across England.
Dr Nikki Kanani, the former NHS director of primary care, said GPs should use a separate system to keep patient notes manually and to upload later, as well as make use other “no-networked apps”.
“Tip: Use Tortus if you have it – can store all your consults locally and then cut and paste them later,” she wrote on X.
Others suggested entering “business continuity” mode and switching off “triaging systems”.
An NHS spokesman 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.”
Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, urged people to “bear with” GPs during the disruption.
In a post on X, Mr Streeting wrote: “This is having a particular impact on GP appointments and electronic prescribing.
“Please bear with your local GPs if they’re grappling with this on top of normal pressures. My department is working closely with colleagues across Government.”
Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospitals, said the outage could result in operations being cancelled.
He said the lack of access to GP booking systems also meant A&E departments were likely to be deluged by patients who felt they had nowhere to turn.
He told the Telegraph: “We are aware obviously of a big impact on primary care. We are also hearing that in some hospitals electronic patient record systems are being affected so that may have led to cancelled operations.
“Lack of access to GP booking systems is likely to have a knock-on effect with more patients pitching up to A&Es.
“There are other impacts on some hospitals that we are hearing about – staff allocation software systems that manage rotas have been affected in some areas, which is obviously very difficult,” he said.