West Country trains, GPs and shops disruption amid IT outage

Widespread disruption to businesses, rail services, and GP practices has been sparked by a global IT outage.

Great Western Railway said its trains are running as normal, but passengers have been experiencing difficulties with ticket issuing and on-screen customer information.

In Bristol and Somerset, patients are being turned away from GP and medical practices as clinical systems are down.

A number of shops are now cash-only, and Bristol Airport has urged passengers to check with airlines before travelling.

A family from Bristol told the BBC they had been stuck at Palma de Mallorca Airport, standing for more than three hours in the same queue.

Jemma Wheeler, 30, said her family of five had only travelled to the country for a “five-night short break”.

“We thought it was a quick, two-hour flight and we would be back in no time to enjoy the nice weather at home,” she added.

Although Bristol Airport’s departures and arrivals page is showing some delays, a spokesperson said there has not been “significant disruption” so far.

There is no impact to passport control at eGates, and most restaurants and retailers are now accepting card payments again.

However, it is recommended that those travelling from the airport should bring some cash.

Great Western Railway (GWR) trains are running normally in the region, with operational and safety systems unaffected.

However, some of the travel operator’s customer-facing systems – including information screens – are impacted.

Passengers are advised to speak to station staff upon arrival or to check the latest information from the GWR website or app.

NHS England has said the outage is “causing disruption in the majority of GP practices”, but there is currently no known impact on emergency services or 999 calls.

Meanwhile a spokesperson for the National Pharmacy Association said the organisation was aware of the global issues impacting community pharmacies, including “the accessing of prescriptions from GPs and medicine deliveries”.

The Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, told patients to “bear with” their local GPs.

In a post on X, he said his department is working closely with colleagues across government.

According to PA News Agency, about 3,700 practices around the UK may be affected by the ongoing issue.

Patients should continue to attend appointments unless told otherwise, but should only contact a GP if they need urgent care.

Otherwise, people should seek help from 111 over the phone or online.

Earlier, Jacqueline Smith attended her GP practice in South Gloucestershire to follow up the results of a blood test, after being unable to get through on the phone.

She was told that the surgery was unable to provide any updates today, and Ms Smith would have to wait until Monday.

“It’s a bit difficult, isn’t it? I’m going to be worrying all weekend now,” she said.

Elsewhere in the West Country, many surgeries which use online check-in systems are facing technical problems.

Elsewhere in the region, there are reports of the following issues:

• Some of Great Western Railway’s customer facing systems, including information screens and ticket vending machines, are being affected by the worldwide IT problems. Trains are running normally but passengers are advised to allow extra time for journeys
• Bristol Airport said some of its retailers are unable to accept card payments and advised passengers to check with their airlines before travelling. A spokesperson confirmed there had not been disruption to planes so far but expected to see some later
• Avon Fire and Rescue Service is not currently affected but is preparing
• Bristol Water is experiencing issues, but the billing department remains operating
• Fishponds Family Practice systems are down and are seeing patients for emergencies only
• Stoke Gifford and Conygre Road Medical Centre said it has been affected and is asking people with emergencies to call 999 or go to A&E
• St Mary Street Surgery in Thornbury said it is only able to deal with urgent appointments
• Watershed’s card systems are down and they are taking cash only
• Bristol Rovers said they are currently unable to process ticket transactions in-store or online

• YMCA in Gloucester’s IT services are down
• Morrisons said it is having “some issues” with payment in some of their shops and it is working hard to resolve it. The Morrison’s in Hatherly is currently cash only.
• Peacocks in Gloucester have put a notice on the door saying “cash only”
• WWT Slimbridge is only taking cash

A number of GP surgeries are affected in Somerset, including:

• Vine Street Surgery
• Winscombe and Banwell Family Practice
• Wells City Practice
• Meadows Surgery in Ilminster
• Park Medical Practice and Evercreech Surgery
• Backwell Medical Centre
• Taunton Road Medical Centre
• Curo (Bath-based housing association)
• Clevedon School Sports Centre cannot take any bookings

Dr Tim Norbury, a GP from Taunton Vale Healthcare Surgery, said “all routine work has had to stop”.

The IT outage is affecting the surgery’s booking system, and staff have been unable to see health information or pre-booked tests for patients.

“We can still work with new urgent or emergency problems but even then you’re much more limited because without knowing your past medical history, you’re running the risk of not being able to diagnose these things properly,” he said.

He urged patients to not contact GP surgeries today, but he said if it is important “please don’t sit at home on it”.

He added: “If you’re trying to order a prescription or a routine test, or routine appointment, then please give the surgeries some time for this system to recover and contact them next week.”

Wiltshire Council has said that the ongoing Microsoft outage has affected leisure centres in the county.

Ashley O’Neill, cabinet member for IT said: “Our leisure centres have been experiencing issues with their card payment machines but these are now starting to come back online.

“We hope this will be fully resolved as quickly as possible and we thank people for bearing with us in the meantime.”

Other problems in the county include:

• Salisbury Hospital has confirmed it is “suffering some delays” with administrative services, asking patients and visitors “to please bear with us as we use alternative methods”
• Longleat Safari Park is experiencing difficulties and is only able to open their drive through
• Swindon Town FC cannot sell tickets or print season tickets due to national issue with Ticketmaster

Cyber security experts warn that it could take days for big organisations to get back to normal, following the outage this morning.

It was caused when an update from cyber security company CrowdStrike caused Microsoft systems to “blue screen” and crash.

CrowdStrike is one of the biggest and most trusted brands in cyber security, with about 24,000 customers worldwide.

Although there is now a software fix for the issue, the manual process required will take a huge amount of work for computers to get back up and running, they said.