GP services to face 'continued disruption' next week after global IT outage, warns NHS
Patients will face "continued disruption" to GP services into next week following the global IT outage, NHS England has warned.
GP surgeries were unable to book appointments or access patient records after their computer systems went down on Friday.
A flawed update rolled out by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike knocked many offline around the world, causing flight and train cancellations and crippling some healthcare systems.
NHS England said its systems were “coming back online in most areas” but “still running slightly slower than usual”.
An NHS spokesperson 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.”
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) said that patients collecting prescriptions could still face disruption this weekend.
Nick Kaye, chairman of the NPA, which represents independent community pharmacies in the UK, said: “Systems are by and large back online and medicine deliveries have resumed in many community pharmacies today after the global IT outage.
“However, yesterday’s outage will have caused backlogs and we expect services to continue to be disrupted this weekend as pharmacies recover.”
Microsoft said CrowdStrike’s update affected 8.5 million Windows devices.
Estimating the impact of the update, Microsoft said it had affected less than 1% of all Windows machines.
Airports across the UK, including London Gatwick, Heathrow Airport, Manchester Airport and Belfast International Airport, said passengers should check with airlines for any delays or cancellations before travelling over the weekend.
Some 207 flights, equating to 6.7% of all scheduled UK departures, were axed on Friday, with others delayed, while 201 flights due to land in the UK were cancelled.
Aviation analytics company Cirium said 6,855 flights, or 6.2% of all those scheduled, were cancelled globally on Friday.
It added that 1,639 flights had been cancelled globally as of 10am on Saturday, including 23 flights departing from UK airports, equating to 0.9% of all scheduled UK departures, as well as 25 arrivals into the UK.
On Saturday the Port of Dover said it was dealing with “hundreds of displaced” airport passengers and urged customers to ensure they had a booking before arrival.
Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said on Saturday afternoon that the IT systems of UK airports and train operators were “back up and working as normal”, but “some delays and a small number of cancelled flights” were expected.
Professor Ciaran Martin, the former chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), said “the worst” of the outage was over but countries would “have to learn to cope” with future flaws.
The NCSC said affected organisations should “put in place vendor mitigations”, adding it was also warning about “an increase in related phishing” as “opportunistic malicious actors seek to take advantage of the situation”.
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