GPs, police and pharmacies among UK services affected by Microsoft outage

Key services across the UK including the NHS, GPs, police and pharmacies have been affected by a global Microsoft outage.

NHS England said patients should still attend appointments unless told otherwise, while several large police forces are urging the public to call if they want to report a crime. Schools have also been affected by the outage.

Microsoft said services were now gradually being restored globally after a problem caused by a higher-than-usual stress on its servers, but users could still experience disruption.

The government said it was working closely with the firm to assess any impact on its services, while local authorities warned that some council services were being affected.

The full extent of the impact of the outage - which is affecting Outlook, Teams and Copilot - and the time it will take to restore the systems remains unclear hours after users first reported issues.

Some 430 million people use the online tools worldwide.

The chief executive of the NHS Alliance, which represents the healcare system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said the outage was affecting some services including emails.

NHS trusts in England were enacting measures to minimise disruption to critical services, a spokesperson said.

Patients have been told to continue to use 999 in an emergency and otherwise contact 111, 111 online or their local pharmacy.

Some GP surgeries have urged patients not to submit messages via their website while the problem remains. Practices in Hampshire and Shropshire have told patients to phone them or come into the surgery if they have an urgent need.

Microsoft scrambles to solve global outage affecting Outlook and Teams but says fixes not going 'as expected'

What we know about the global Microsoft outage

A National Pharmacy Association spokesperson said the outage was affecting pharmacies' ability to communicate with GP practices and some patients, so "waits may be longer than normal and there may be delays to some prescriptions".

The overall impact on health services remains unclear. Much of the NHS calendar is linked to diaries using the Microsoft system, but workflow practices differ between hospitals and trusts.

There are anecdotal reports of c-sections being cancelled and hospitals only accepting urgent referrals - though the impact on elective treatments has yet to be confirmed.

The GMB union's national secretary Rachel Harrison said the outage was having a "serious impact" on ambulance and NHS trusts.

"Those who work in 111 and 999 services are unable to refer patient details in the normal way which is creating a massive backlog and has the potential for chaos," she said, though "emergency and life-threatening call outs appear to be unaffected".

Meanwhile, police forces in England and Wales - including the Metropolitan Police, Greater Manchester Police and Police Scotland - have said online forms may be affected. They are urging people to call them about any time-critical by non-emergency matters.

Downing Street said it was looking to get a "full picture" of the the extent of the outage's effect on government services.

In England, the Local Government Association warned that some services may be disrupted but plans were in place to ensure people "continue to receive the support they need".

Because the outage affects key organisational and communication platforms that are integrated, many other workplaces have been affected.

Some teachers have reported being unable to access their calendars, emails and files on cloud servers, while parents in several parts of Scotland being told to call to report absences rather than using email.

Royal Mail said some of its online services were unavailable and email notifications about deliveries may be impacted, but post was still being collected and delivered as normal

MPs have been unable to access their parliamentary accounts. A spokesperson said alternative arrangements were in place

MSPs also confirmed that Holyrood's emails systems were down, meaning they were unable to communicate with constituents or access urgent casework

Some businesses are reverting to using paper or moving to different communication platforms like WhatsApp.

'The knock-on effects are huge'

Microsoft and cyber-security experts have ruled out a cyber-attack being the cause of the outage.

The tech firm said a large number of its servers had become "unexpectedly unavailable", meaning traffic was sent to the servers that remained online, putting them under strain.

"Just like on a motorway, when you block one lane, you have to put all of the excess traffic through just, say, one or two lanes," Jake Moore, a cyber-security adviser at ESET, explained.