The NHS has warned of “continued disruption” to GP services into next week following the global IT outage – as airline passengers reported lengthy delays and lost baggage this weekend.
The outage spread globally on Friday morning after an update from global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike knocked many Microsoft Windows PCs offline with a “blue screen of death” appearing on screens.
The company’s founder confirmed it was caused by a bug in the update and not a cyber attack, as some had feared.
NHS England reported its systems were “coming back online in most areas” on Saturday afternoon but were “still running slightly slower than usual”.
A 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.”
There was also significant disruption to pharmacy services on Saturday.
Nick Kaye, chair of the National Pharmacy Association, said systems were “by and large back online and medicine deliveries have resumed in many community pharmacies today”.
But he added Friday’s outage “will have caused backlogs and we expect services to continue to be disrupted this weekend as pharmacies recover”.
“We urge people to be patient when visiting their local pharmacy and some may be still prioritising those patients with emergency prescriptions from their GP surgery,” he said.
Passengers at Gatwick Airport faced lengthy queues on Saturday. Pic: PA
Microsoft estimated that around 8.5 million Windows devices were affected worldwide, equating to less than 1%.
But experts have warned it could take weeks for systems to fully recover and problems at airports were being reported on Saturday.
Andrew Evans, from Taunton in Somerset,…
