NHS ‘systems back online’ after Microsoft outage but patients warned of further delays
The tech shutdown, caused by a faulty update of security software from CrowdStrike, disrupted both primary and secondary care on Friday, but health service says that issues are, largely, resolved
NHS England has this morning announced that health service “systems are now back online” following disruption caused by the global Microsoft outage.
As the shutdown – caused by a faulty update of security software from CrowdStrike – took hold on Friday morning, the NHS revealed that the issues had affected the EMIS clinical IT system. According to EMIS, its software is used by almost three in five general practice surgeries across the country, as well as by more than 40% of pharmacies.
As a result of the tech issues, patients were initially advised by the NHS to “only contact your GP if it’s urgent”.
In a further statement issued on Friday afternoon, the health service added that “there are also some issues with administrative systems in hospitals that mean staff are having to work manually from paper to manage certain tasks”.
As of this morning, NHS England has announced that “systems are now back online, and patients with an NHS appointment this week should continue to attend unless told not to”.
Some disruption may persist in the coming days though, the latest update warned.
“Thanks to the hard work of NHS staff throughout this incident we are hoping to keep further disruption to a minimum, however there still may be some delays as services recover, particularly with GPs needing to rebook appointments, so please bear with us,” it said. “It’s important that patients attend appointments as normal unless told otherwise. You can contact your GP in the usual way, or use your local pharmacy, NHS 111 online or call 111for urgent health advice.”
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Other UK organisations affected by the outage included several of the country’s biggest rail companies, while operations at airports including Luton and Edinburgh were also impacted.
As businesses and public bodies across all sectors suffered disruption, Cabinet ministers convened to monitor the situation and coordinate government’s response.
For its part, CrowdStrike claims that “the issue has been identified and isolated, and a fix has been deployed, “adding that “this was not a cyberattack”.
In a statement addressed to “customers and partners”, the security firm’s founder and chief executive George Kurtz said that he wished “to sincerely apologise directly to all of you for the outage”.
“All of CrowdStrike understands the gravity and impact of the situation. We quickly identified the issue and deployed a fix, allowing us to focus diligently on restoring customer systems as our highest priority,” he said. We are working closely with impacted customers and partners to ensure that all systems are restored, so you can deliver the services your customers rely on. CrowdStrike is operating normally, and this issue does not affect our Falcon platform systems.”
Kurtz added: “We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this. I encourage everyone to remain vigilant and ensure that you’re engaging with official CrowdStrike representatives. Our blog and technical support will continue to be the official channels for the latest updates. Nothing is more important to me than the trust and confidence that our customers and partners have put into CrowdStrike. As we resolve this incident, you have my commitment to provide full transparency on how this occurred and steps we’re taking to prevent anything like this from happening again.”
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