CrowdStrike Outage: NHS warn GP services will face 'continued disruption' into next week after IT outage

• NHS warns GP services will face disruption “into next week” after systems were hit by a global IT outage.
• The outage which caused worldwide disruption on Friday (July 19) was caused by a faulty update to CrowdStrike antivirus software, which crashed Microsoft systems.
• An estimated 3,700 GP surgeries were affected with doctors left unable to access patient records or issue prescriptions.
• In a statement NHS England have told patients to expect ‘continued disruption’.

GP services across the UK have been caught up in the CrowdStrike outage, with an estimated 3,700 practises being caught up in the global IT crash on Friday.

NHS England have now revealed that disruption caused to services could continue “into next week”, as appointments needed to be rescheduled.

The IT outage which was caused by a faulty update to CrowdStrike antivirus software, saw Microsoft systems crash around the world, leading to mass disruption which saw flights grounded, media channels taken off the air and healthcare organisations left unable to access their systems.

In the UK, GPs and pharmacies were hit hard, with medical professionals unable to access the EMIS system, which is used by an estimated 60% of GPs, leaving them unable to carry out daily tasks, including booking appointments, accessing patient records and issuing prescriptions.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Dr Fari Ahmad said the IT outage meant “everything went down” in her GP surgery and the disruption would cause “a lot more issues later on in the week”.

Dr Ahmad continued: “We had people who were supposed to come in for results, and we couldn’t see them. We said ‘Sorry, we can’t help you’. We were just trying to deal with the emergencies on the day that really couldn’t wait. We couldn’t do our routine stuff, so the implications for us is a lot of that’s been bumped up.”

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) said that patients collecting prescriptions could also still face disruption. Nick Kaye, chairman of the NPA explained on Saturday (July 20): “Systems are by and large back online and medicine deliveries have resumed in many community pharmacies today after the global IT outage.”

He continued: “However, yesterday’s outage will have caused backlogs and we expect services to continue to be disrupted this weekend as pharmacies recover.”

When will GP services be back to normal?

A spokesperson for NHS England has revealed that it will take some time for GP services to get back to normal, with “disruption” expected “into next week”.

In a statement they said: "As practices recover from the loss of IT systems on Friday, there may be some continued disruption, particularly to GP services, in some areas into next week as practices work to rebook appointments. The advice for Monday remains that patients should attend appointments as normal unless told otherwise."

Have your GP services been impacted by the global IT outage? Share your experience in the comment section below.