'Impact on chemotherapy' GP surgeries and pharmacies hit by IT problems

The global IT outage has impacted a number of health service providers

GP surgeries and pharmacies across the North West are among health services disrupted by a worldwide IT outage.

A number of doctors' clinics and chemists across the region have said their systems have been affected.

Wilmslow Health Centre in Cheshire, The Elms Medical Centre in Liverpool and Bay Medical Group in Heysham, Lancashire, are among the GP surgeries in the north west reporting they are currently without access to their IT systems.

NHS England said the IT outage was "causing disruption in the majority of GP practices" in England but there was currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services.

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'Skeleton service'

“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," an NHS spokesperson said.

Patients are advised to attend appointments unless told otherwise and to "only contact your GP if it’s urgent, and otherwise please use 111 online or call 111".

Microsoft says its outage began at about 18:00 ET (23:00 BST) on Thursday and it is taking "mitigation actions" after service issues, the AFP news agency has reported.

PA media reports that a number of GP practice websites have 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.”

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has also confirmed that the IT outage is disrupting community pharmacies.

A spokesperson 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.”

In a post on X, Wilmslow Health Centre said: "All practices in the UK using the NHS commissioned GP computer system EMIS are currently without access to their IT systems.

"This is beyond the control of GP surgeries. Please bear with us until we have our IT systems back online."

A message on the website of The Elms Medical Centre in Liverpool said: "We are currently experiencing a National Outage on EMIS, this means we are unable to access medical records.

"We are working on clinical URGENT appointments only."

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A Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson said that about 200 to 300 clinics using the EMIS system were affected and this would potentially affect patient appointments as their history cannot be retrieved.

Another GP surgery affected, Bay Medical Group in Heysham, Lancashire, has posted on their Facebook page: "BMG patients, like the rest of the world we are experiencing technical issues with our computer systems today 19th July 2024.

"This is causing major disruption to our services. We have limited phone lines and we may not be able to access your medical record so please bear with us."

They have asked patients to telephone later "if your call can wait" but anyone with an appointment is asked to attend as normal.

The outage has also affected "a small number" of applications at Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust

Abigail Harrison, chief digital and infrastructure officer said: "Business continuity plans have been put in place to ensure we can support patients while the issue is resolved.

"We will continue to monitor the situation and communicate with our partners."

The outage has widely impacted services and companies across the globe, including airlines, broadcasters and banks.

There are multiple reports of issues across the country in relation to EMIS Web - which allows GPs to manage appointment bookings, conduct patient consultations, and update, store and share patient records.

One GP told the BBC's health editor Hugh Pym: "We can see acutely unwell [patients] and handwrite notes/scripts, but for anything else we are asking to call back."

The BBC has approached hospital trusts.