Microsoft outage throws GP services into chaos as vital NHS booking system goes down: 'We are completely dead in the water'

Microsoft's global outage has hit vital NHS services, with the medical computer system EMIS not working.

The EMIS system is used by GPs to book appointments, view patient notes, order prescriptions and make referrals. 

However doctors in parts of the UK are currently reporting having a '100 per cent outage' with patients also telling MailOnline they can't get life-saving drugs. 

Speaking to this website a GP practice manager in Berkshire said: 'We are completely dead in the water.

'We can't see any patients our systems are down. It's not clinically safe to treat patients because we can't see their notes. 

'Can't give out prescriptions and even if we do hand write them the problem is also affecting the pharmacies. It's affecting the whole area and hospitals are in an even worse situation.' 

Another GP practice, based in South West London, said they had lost '100 per cent' of their clinical systems and were having to turn away patients and direct others to the NHS 111 service. 

Patients also told MailOnline they were struggling to access lifesaving drugs and care. 

Father Grant Ciccone, from Deptford in South East London, said he is unable to get any more of the insulin he needed to keep his condition stable and was very worried. 

'I cannot order insulin which I need to keep me alive. I have run out of two types of insulin which I need.

'Don’t know when I will be able to get a prescription as the GP website is down as well and no one is answering the phone.'

Some NHS cancer patients, who have asked to remain anonymous, claim they are being turned away from their scheduled chemotherapy appointments. 

Other providers of NHS primary care services reported similar issues up and down the country. 

Dr Darren Simpson, a GP in Wallsend, Newcastle told MailOnline: 'We're a bit stuck. EMIS is the entire GP record — all letters, hospital results, everything we document and patient bookings are done through it.

'When we log on, it just says "Network Error".

'If a patient calls with an acute problem of course we can still see them and we issue handwritten prescriptions.

'We just can't see their full medical records, look at results or check what medication they're on.'

GTD Healthcare, a major UK healthcare provider in the North West of England which uses the system, said this morning: 'Unfortunately there is a national issue with EMIS Web — the clinical computer system used within GP practices. 

'This will affect our ability to book appointments/consult with patients this morning. We apologise for the disruption. 

It added: 'If you have a life-threatening medical emergency, please dial 999.'

An NHS England spokesperson confirmed the problem, stating: 'The NHS is aware of a global IT outage and an issue with EMIS, an appointment and patient record system, which is causing disruption in the majority of GP practices.'

'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.

'There is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services, so people should use these services as they usually would.'

They added that patients should continue to attend appointments unless told otherwise.  

MailOnline has contacted EMIS for comment. 

But an alert issued by the company to GPs this morning, seen by this website, said: 'We are aware that users are still unable to access EMIS Web'.

'We are affected by a third-party issue that is impacting organisations globally, and we are working with the relevant parties to restore service as soon as possible.

'Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this is causing. We will continue to keep you updated as this work progresses.' 

The IT fault, which started last night, has caused Windows computers to suddenly shut down, prompting departure boards to suddenly turn off at airports, grounding flights and knocking TV channels, airports and banks offline. 

In the UK, Britain's biggest train country told passengers to expect delays due to 'widespread IT issues', while Ryanair warned of 'potential disruption'.

On the social media platform X some GPs are reporting having to 'go back to paper and pen', while others are saying they are unaffected. 

Ellergreen Medical Centre an NHS GP practice in Liverpool: 'Currently there is a national outage of the GP record software EMIS. We are not aware of why as yet and are waiting further information.

'This will impact on how the practice can safely see patients, issue medications etc.

'We will be pausing some services on safety grounds.'

@GPforhire wrote: 'Argh! No Emis!! Back to pen and paper. Hope nothing urgent comes in.'

Later the same account added: 'Blimey, one of the nurses says its nationwide! Yikes.' 

Cottage Lane Surgery in Gamesley 'There is a widespread IT problem effecting England and other Countries. 

'Currently we are unable to use our Clinical Software System EMIS so we will only be able to complete urgent duties till the situation is sorted'.

Solihull Healthcare Partnership: 'Unfortunately there is a national issue with EMIS Web - our clinical computer system. 

'This will affect our ability to book/consult with patients this morning. We will update patients when we can. We apologise for the disruption.'

Wilmslow Health Centre added: '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.'

EMIS offers a backup, offline model — the Business Continuity, or BC mode — which allows clinics to 'maintain full and continued access to EMIS even when an adverse event may force the system to become temporarily unavailable'.

On X GP Dr Nikita Kanani wrote: 'IT outage tips: - if on EMIS, try BC mode — you can use local non networked apps like Docman to pull critical information — use a simple GP notes proforma to keep records for uploading later — switch off incoming triage systems for now — update patient facing sites.'

However BC mode only allows basic access to patient information, such as names, addresses and some detail about conditions they may have.  

US cyber security company CrowdStrike has admitted to being responsible for the error, as they report on their website they are 'working on it'.

Sky News viewers were left with a static message on their TVs apologising for the 'disruption' to the service at 6am when broadcasting was meant to begin.

It read: 'We apologise for the interruption to this broadcast. We hope to restore the transmission of Sky News shortly.'

Ryanair has also seemingly been hit with the issue after it posted on its website urging passengers to arrive at airports three hours early blaming a 'third party IT issue, which is outside Ryanair's control and affect all airlines operating across the network'.

The issue is impacting companies globally with online reports that Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan, the US and the UK have all been affected.  

Just two months ago Microsoft was hit with another major outage after Bing.com, Microsoft's search engine, went down with the problem apparently spreading to the brand's application programming interface which means that services such as DuckDuckGo also went down.

According to reports the outage also impacted ChatGPT and Ecosia. Despite Google's dominance in the world of web searching, Bing's API has numerous high-profile clients. 

In various reports on X, users said that they were either greeted with a blank page or a 429 HTTP code error when they attempted to log on.

Users claimed that both Bing.com and DuckDuckGo were loading but neither were producing search results when a query was typed.