Microsoft outage: Most GP practices suffering ‘disruption’ as ministers coordinate government response

Patients are advised by the NHS to only contact their local doctor with urgent queries, while ministers work on cohesively responding to issue impacting businesses and transport around the world

The majority of GP surgeries across the country are among the victims of the ongoing global Microsoft outage that has also caused major difficulties for companies and transport services around the world.

The outage – which resulted in many individual users turning on their machine today to be met with the notorious ‘blue screen of death – was caused by problems with a software update made overnight by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.

In a statement issued this morning, NHS England acknowledged that the Microsoft outage has caused “an issue with EMIS” – the biggest provider of clinical IT systems to GPs and pharmacies around the country. The firm’s website claims that its software supports 58% of general practices and 41% of pharmacies – encompassing more than 10,000 individual care providers.

The NHS said the current lack of access to EMIS systems “is causing disruption in the majority of GP practices” in England.

“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,” the health service added. “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″.

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Others being affected by the tech shutdown include one of the UK’s largest train operators, Govia Thameslink Railway, which runs the Southern, Great Northern and Thameslink services.

“We are currently experiencing widespread IT issues across our entire network,” the company said in an update on X. “Our IT teams are actively investigating to determine the root cause of the problem. We are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice cancellations, particularly on the Thameslink and Great Northern networks. Additionally, other key systems, including our real-time customer information platforms, are also affected. We will provide additional updates when we can. In the meantime, please regularly check your journey before you travel.”

With businesses across a variety of sectors likely to be affected, Whitehall departments and leaders are working together to understand the issue and direct government’s response.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden said: “Ministers are working with their sectors and respective industries on the issue. I am in close contact with teams coordinating our response through the COBR response system.”

Secretary of state for science, innovation and technology Peter Kyle added: “Govt departments are working seamlessly together to understand the nature of today’s outages and respond appropriately and swiftly.”

CrowdStrike chief executive George Kurtz said that the outage was caused “by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts, Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted [and] his is not a security incident or cyberattack”.

“The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” he added. “We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website.”

In the meantime, organisations and individuals across the world continue to experience major disruption, with more than 1,000 flights reportedly already having been cancelled as a result of the outage. UK airports including Luton and Edinburgh have reported delays as manual processes have been required. Television channels CBBC and Sky News were also prevented from going on air this morning.

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