IT meltdown hits businesses, trains and surgeries

A global IT outage has caused disruption to schools, doctors' surgeries and transport providers in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and Dorset.

The failure has caused chaos around the world, with major banks, media outlets and airlines among the bodies affected.

The issue emerged when an update from cyber security CrowdStrike caused Microsoft systems to "blue screen" and crash.

Train operators Southern and South Western Railway both reported issues - particularly with ticket vending machines.

With automated ticket machines out of action, travellers at Southampton Station have had to queue for tickets.

BBC reporter Jamie Morris said staff were directing customers to the ticket offices to buy tickets manually.

"It looks like they are dealing with it [and] no trains have been delayed at the moment," he said.

"People seem to be cracking on and making do."

E-ticket scanners at the station were working as normal.

Across England, GP surgeries have reported being unable to book appointments or access patient records as their EMIS Web system went down.

Living Well, which runs four GP surgeries in Southampton, told patients: "Due to a national issue with our clinical systems, we are unable to access your medical records."

Manpreet Gill, of Shirley Pharmacy in the city, said it had been unable to receive and download prescriptions from doctors' surgeries.

"We can still help patients and phone lines are still working," he said.

"We're trying our best to help patients as much as possible and we can do an emergency supply if we need to.

"We're just waiting until its back to normal.

In a statement NHS Dorset said the county's GP practices used an electronic record system that has not been affected by the reported IT issues.

However it said community pharmacy services, accessing prescriptions from GPs and medicine deliveries, were disrupted.

"The NHS has long standing measures in place to manage the disruption, including using paper patient records and handwritten prescriptions," it added.

Among businesses hit by the wordwide failure, Emily Davis, from estate agents Austen and Wyatt on Shirley High Street, said staff faced "blank screens" and were unable to accept offers on homes.

Her colleague AJ Singh said: "I've been out leafleting, door knocking, trying to gain business the old school way.

"We literally can do nothing in the office - we're not making any money."Independent commercial radio station Isle of Wight Radio has been unable to broadcast live.

Entertainment venue MAST Mayflower Studios in Southampton said it had resumed online ticket sales but was not able to process in-person or telephone sales.

Monkey World, near Wareham in Dorset, reported it was experiencing problems processing card payments.

"Please book your tickets online if possible, and bring cash for spending in park," it posted on social media.

The outage has also affected airports across the UK with air travellers facing delays and cancellations at the beginning of the summer holiday getaway.

Ewelina Sornat from Southampton arrived at Gatwick Airport at 06:00 BST with her family for a flight to Miami.

"Our flight was meant to be at 10 but we haven't had an update. There are people everywhere - lying on the floor," she said.

Southampton Airport reported it was "largely unaffected" by the failure.

"A small number of airlines have moved to manual check-in and some retailers are only accepting cash payments," it said.

"There is likely to be a knock-on impact due to issues elsewhere which could result in some delays later in the day.

"We would advise passengers to check the status of their flights before travelling to the airport," it posted on X.

Ryanair, which operates out of Bournemouth Airport, said its booking and check-in were unavailable.

It said passengers due to travel on Friday, who had yet to check-in for a flight, could do so at the airport.

DP World, which runs Southampton docks, also confirmed it was operating as normal.

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