What to do if you've got NHS doctor's appointment as worldwide IT outage rages on

Patients and doctors have been left with safety fears as a global IT outage rages on.

A Microsoft Windows issue has left banks, airlines, telecommunications firms, TV and radio broadcasters and supermarkets experiencing outages following the appearance of blue screen of death error screens worldwide. Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike - which provides security protection for cloud software including the Microsoft 365 platform - said a corrupted update file on Windows hosts was the cause of the problems.

The fallout has been worldwide, and the NHS has been hit. Across England, GP surgeries have reported being unable to book appointments or access patient records as their EMIS Web system went down. Some hospital trusts have also reported problems - with one trust declaring a critical incident.

READ MORE: LIVE: Chaos across UK as huge IT outage hits flights, airports, NHS, banks, supermarkets and transport

One patient at a Greater Manchester GP surgery has told the M.E.N. this morning: "I got here at five minutes past eight. I've got sharp pain in my knee so was hoping to get an emergency appointment but was told to come later or call.

"I’m still here waiting and hoping that is not gonna take long. Many people coming and getting told that they have no access to any information and the work is at a stand still. People with pre-booked appointments are coming in and getting told that there will be no appointment, they will have to reschedule."

Dr Farah Jameel, a GP in central London working at Museum Practice, told the PA news agency she is unable to access patient notes, imaging results, medication history and blood tests. "We are still working through what this could mean for our practice. At present we cannot access any