PATIENTS in the region are being urged to only contact their GPs if it is urgent, as surgeries and other healthcare organisations are being disrupted by the global IT outage today (Friday July 19).
The IT issue is causing disruptions to EMIS Web, the system used by many GP practices to book appointments and access patient records.
The outage is also causing disruption to other local healthcare partner organisations.
The NHS Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) said the NHS had implemented long-standing continuity measures to mitigate the disruption, and work was underway to fix the issue as soon as possible.
A spokesperson said: “Local NHS services are in close communication with one another and are working together to resolve the issue and ensure that the impact to patients is minimised wherever possible.
“Patients are being asked to continue to attend appointments as usual unless contacted and told otherwise.”
Patients are being asked to only contact their GP if it is urgent. Otherwise, they are being asked to use NHS 111 online by visiting www.111.nhs.uk or calling 111.
The outage is not affecting 999 and emergency services and people should continue to use these in life-threatening emergencies.
The spokesperson added: “It is extremely important that patients consider which service is right for their health needs, especially during the current IT outage.”
Visit www.happyhealthylives.uk for more information on which service to use.
The ICB said further information and updates on the IT outage and the impact to local health services would be provided when possible.
The IT outage has caused travel chaos around the world, with banking and healthcare services also badly hit.
Cyber-security firm Crowdstrike has admitted that the problem was caused by an update to its Falcon antivirus software, designed to protect Microsoft Windows devices from malicious attacks.
