Global IT chaos hits GP surgeries across Wigan borough

Around the world, transport – in particular air travel – banking and communication systems were thrown into chaos.

Closer to home, it was those trying to see a doctor who were impacted as the disruption affected EMIS, the GP practice clinical computer system. It affected the ability of GP practices to book and consult with patients.

One such was Shevington Surgery, which today posted on its Facebook page: "We have now made the decision to close AskMyGP and will only be taking urgent requests via the telephone. This is due to our systems still being down.

"We are currently working on business continuity mode and need to ensure that safe care is given. We will update everyone again once we have an update from IT."

Patients with “minor ailments” were being sent to pharmacies from GP surgeries, according to the chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA).

Dr Leyla Hannbeck said: “Pharmacies are experiencing delays in prescriptions arriving through GP systems as the systems are down, and there are also delays in receiving medicines in stock due to some wholesalers experiencing IT system failures.

“As the GP appointment system is down more patients are being referred to pharmacies for minor ailments.

“We are asking the public to be patient if there are delays because these issues are outside of our control and we are doing everything we can to ensure patients receive their medicines and treatments.”

Meanwhile a spokesperson for Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) said: “There is currently no major impact on bus, tram and local rail services in Greater Manchester but TfGM and its partners are continuing to monitor the situation closely.

“Some rail customer information channels may be affected but services are running as normal.

“We are currently unable to take new bookings for Local Link and Ring & Ride services but this will not affect any bookings that have already been made.”

Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike has admitted responsibility for the outage, saying it was caused by a software update.

They say a “fix has been deployed” but there is no estimate as to when everything will return to normal.