How Microsoft outage has affected key public services in the UK
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Hospitals, GPs, police forces and property agents have had to find a workaround for Microsoft packagesHospitals, GPs, police forces and property agents across the UK have been hit…
Hospitals, GPs, police forces and property agents have had to find a workaround for Microsoft packages
Hospitals, GPs, police forces and property agents across the UK have been hit by the global Microsoft outage. Here’s how the disruption to email and other IT facilities has affected key services.
The NHS experienced “serious” and “widespread” disruption across the UK on Friday as a result of the Microsoft outage, with hundreds of hospitals, GP surgeries and community health services affected, senior health sources said.
While some doctors, hospital workers and NHS night staff told the Guardian they first noticed problems accessing emails during the early hours of Friday morning, the severity of the problem became apparent to most from about 6am.
NHS sources said the outage caused disruption to a range of Microsoft 365 services relied upon by staff, including Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive and Copilot. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) also said it was experiencing problems sending and receiving emails.
Some staff resorted to using patients’ paper records after being unable to access email and other IT facilities. An NHS England spokesperson said: “Local NHS services are enacting longstanding measures to manage IT outages and ensure critical services and appointments can continue for patients today.”
Patients were urged to attend appointments on Friday unless advised otherwise, and to continue using 999 for emergency situations.
Inevitably though, some operations and appointments were cancelled. Some staff said they were unable to send urgent messages about referrals for cancer and other serious conditions.
NHS community services staff expressed concerns that patients who usually contact them via email, sometimes with very urgent needs and requirements, were unable to do so.
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