Hospitals, GPs and police forces across the UK have been hit by the global Microsoft outage, as key services battle to get systems back online.
Police forces across the country reported that their systems had been affected, while NHS sources said the healthcare system was experiencing “widespread” and “serious” disruption, with staff reporting being unable to access email and IT systems they use to deliver healthcare.
Patients getting their prescriptions were also warned of possible delays, while schools and universities were unable to access emails.
There were also reports that ambulance services had been affected by the outage.
The problems began late on Thursday afternoon and users have been unable to access many of Microsoft’s most popular services. Thousands worldwide reported they were unable to send and receive emails through Outlook.
The Microsoft executive vice-president, Charles Lamanna, said the outages did not appear to be the result of a cyber-attack. On Friday morning the firm said it was seeing “early signs of stabilisation”.
NHS staff arriving at work on Friday morning reported being unable to access email, affecting their ability to deliver healthcare in hospitals and surgeries, amid warnings that the outage would be highly disruptive through the day.
In some cases, staff said they were able to use their phones to access Microsoft Teams, which is heavily relied upon in the healthcare sector, but meetings were having to be cancelled across the board.
Some NHS organisations took to social media to apologise, urging patients not to email and to use the telephone to contact them instead.
Rachel Harrison, the GMB national secretary, said: “The Microsoft data outage is having a serious impact across ambulance and NHS trusts. Luckily emergency and life-threatening callouts appear to be unaffected.”
Pharmacy sources told the Guardian they were also unable to access email, and said the Microsoft outage was affecting their ability to communicate with some GP surgeries about prescriptions. This was having a “significant” impact on patient waiting times for medicines, they said.
A National Pharmacy Association spokesperson said: “We are aware of the disruption impacting pharmacies today, including access to NHS email systems, due to national issues with Microsoft. This affects a pharmacy’s ability to communicate with GP practices and some patients.
“Please bear with your pharmacy teams today, where waits may be longer than normal and there may be delays to some prescriptions.”
Meanwhile, engineers from the government were working with Microsoft to assess the impact of the outage, according to a minister, while the Welsh government said it was putting contingency plans in place.
Luke Pollard, the minister for defence readiness and industry, told Times Radio: “Government engineers and the systems are working with Microsoft at the moment. I would expect that to be able to be detailed throughout the day. But as more people come online with their working days shortly, I think there’ll be sadly more people frustrated with the system.”
Pollard said the Microsoft outage demonstrated the need for “greater resilience” against technology failures.
He told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4: “My appetite for disruption when it comes to using my phone is virtually zero. I imagine that’s the case for every one of your listeners, that people want it to work all the time, every time, and we’re seeing more disruption from those tech companies. That’s partly because we’ve become more dependent on technology.”
The Metropolitan, Northampton, Hertfordshire, South Wales, Dyfed-Powys and Dorset police forces all reported that their systems had been affected. Access to Microsoft products used by MPs was also down.
A parliamentary spokesperson said: “We are aware of the global issue affecting Microsoft email services, which is impacting users of the parliamentary network. We are working with Microsoft to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.”
