East Herts GP surgeries affected by global IT outage but ‘minor impact’ at Princess Alexandra Hospital

Princess Alexandra Hospital has reported only a “minor impact” from major IT outages across the world, but some GP surgeries in East Herts and West Essex have been affected.

Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike has blamed a “defect” in one of its software updates which hit Windows operating systems, rather than a cyberattack or a security incident. A fix is now being implemented.

The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust, which runs the acute general hospital at Hamstel Road in Harlow and provides outpatient and diagnostic services from the Herts and Essex Hospital, Bishop’s Stortford, and St Margaret’s Hospital in Epping, has reassured patients and promised to keep them updated.

“We have only experienced a minor impact to our IT services following today’s global IT outage.

“This includes some internal staffing roster systems and also the text reminder service for appointments for patients, for which business continuity plans are in place.

“Our patient services are unaffected and patients should continue to attend appointments and access care as usual.”

A spokeswoman for NHS Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board said this afternoon (Friday, July 19): “The global IT outage is causing disruption to some of the IT systems used by some of the NHS organisations in our area, which is affecting a number of patient services.

“Most of the GP practices in south west Hertfordshire, and a handful of the GP practices in east and north Hertfordshire and west Essex are affected.

“Measures are in place to manage the disruption, including using paper records and handwritten prescriptions.

“Anyone who has a booked appointment with their GP should attend as planned, although there may be some delays and your patience will be appreciated. Practices that are affected are contacting patients to keep them informed.

“If you have been told that your GP practice has been affected, and were intending to contact your GP today about a routine health issue, please wait until next week when we hope to have systems back up and running.

“Some Hertfordshire and west Essex pharmacies are experiencing difficulties with accessing prescriptions from GPs and some medicine deliveries may also be disrupted.”

East and North Herts NHS Trust, which runs the Lister Hospital in Stevenage, the New QEII in Welwyn Garden City, Hertford County Hospital and Mount Vernon Cancer Centre is affected by IT issues.

Staff are using alternative paper systems to keep disruption to a minimum. Patients should continue to attend planned appointments unless they are contacted.

Urgent treatment walk-in centres are expected to be particularly busy today, with a warning of long waits.

There is currently no known impact on NHS 999 calls, so people should call 999 in a life or limb-threatening emergency, as usual.

Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB said it would release a further update later today.