College responds to global IT outage

The following is an update to a statement originally published on 19 July 2024 - the original statement can be viewed below.

Professor Kamila Hawthorne, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “Our understanding is that appropriate measures have been put in place to resolve the issues many GP practices were dealing with due to last week’s global IT outage. The outage caused considerable disruption to general practice across the country, but GPs and our teams have been working hard to minimise the impact this has had on the care and services they have been able to deliver for patients.

“We’re very relieved that the IT issue appears to have been resolved, but the incident has left many practices with a backlog of patient appointments and administrative duties that will likely take time to catch up on, so we urge all patients to please bear with us. We advise patients to check their practice’s website and social media for any relevant information and updates to their service.”

Responding to reports from members of considerable disruption caused by Microsoft’s global IT outage, Professor Kamila Hawthorne, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said:

“Our members are telling us that today’s outage is causing considerable disruption to GP practice bookings and IT systems – practices using EMIS IT systems appear to be particularly affected.

“Any form of disruption to our digital systems is a serious concern for GPs as it directly impacts on the care we can give to our patients. Outages like this affect our access to important clinical information about our patients, as well as our ability to book tests, make referrals, and inform the most appropriate treatment plan.

“GPs and their practice teams will do what they can to minimise the impact on patients, working hard to ensure they still get the care they need wherever possible. Practices will be implementing their own business continuity plans, which may include switching to more manual ways of working and prioritising patients in most urgent need.

“We urge all patients to please bear with us and if their issue isn’t urgent then to try and wait until the outage has been resolved. We advise patients to check their practice’s website and social media for relevant information and updates if their IT systems are down. We really hope that the problems can be resolved quickly, and that services are restored to normal as soon as possible.”

Further information

RCGP press office: 0203 188 7659
press@rcgp.org.uk

Notes to editors

The Royal College of General Practitioners is a network of more than 54,000 family doctors working to improve care for patients. We work to encourage and maintain the highest standards of general medical practice and act as the voice of GPs on education, training, research and clinical standards.