A global Microsoft outage is causing widespread disruption to hospitals, GP surgeries, schools, universities and police forces across the UK, with key services working to restore their systems.
NHS sources described the disruption as "widespread" and "serious", with staff reporting they were unable to access email and other IT systems used to deliver healthcare. Patients collecting prescriptions were warned of possible delays, while schools and universities reported being unable to access emails.
Problems began on Thursday afternoon
The issues started late on Thursday afternoon, leaving users unable to access many of Microsoft's most popular services. Thousands of people worldwide reported being unable to send and receive emails through Outlook.
Microsoft executive vice-president Charles Lamanna said the outages did not appear to be the result of a cyber-attack. On Friday morning, the company said it was seeing "early signs of stabilisation".
Impact on NHS and pharmacies
NHS staff arriving at work on Friday morning reported being unable to access email, affecting their ability to deliver care in hospitals and surgeries. In some cases, staff said they were able to use their phones to access Microsoft Teams, which is widely used in the healthcare sector, but meetings were having to be cancelled.
Some NHS organisations took to social media to apologise, urging patients not to email and to use the telephone instead. Pharmacy sources said the outage was affecting their ability to communicate with some GP surgeries about prescriptions, having a "significant" impact on patient waiting times for medicines.
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."
Government response and police impact
Government engineers 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 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."
