NHS forced to cancel cancer for you services and GP surgeries

CANCER patients had their radiotherapy sessions cancelled as the global IT outage caused mayhem across the NHS.

- Hanna Geissler

Appointment systems and patient records at thousands of GP surgeries were also affected and some pharmacies were unable to access prescriptions.

NHS England said medics were using paper records and handwritten prescriptions where necessary.

It said there were "longstanding measures in place to manage the disruption".

A spokesman added: "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.

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

"There are also some issues with administrative systems in hospitals that mean staff are having to work manually from paper to manage certain tasks but in the majority of hospitals, care is continuing as normal.

"Patients should attend appointments unless told otherwise." The spokesman added: "You can contact your GP on the phone if it's urgent.

"Otherwise, please use your local pharmacy, NHS 111 online or call 111 for urgent health advice as normal." Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust declared a critical incident and said the problem was "widely affecting services including ours".

The trust said it contacted patients who were due to have radiotherapy in the morning to reschedule appointments. In a later update, it said the hospital's ability to deliver radiotherapy services had recovered and the afternoon's appointments would take place as scheduled.