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GP surgeries and public services hit by IT outage

BBC Screengrab of council website with message "impact of the global IT outage"BBC
The two unitary councils in Northamptonshire experienced problems because of the outage

GP surgeries and public services in Northamptonshire have been hit by the mass IT outage which affected services across the world.

Some surgeries, including Greenview in Northampton, were unable to access the electronic prescribing system, so patients had to collect paper prescriptions.

Corby Urgent Care Centre said some of its systems had been affected by the outage.

Council services such as libraries, social care and country parks were also disrupted.

Google Single-storey brick medical centreGoogle
Greenview Surgery in Northampton cannot access electronic subscribing
Google Car park at country park showing parking machinesGoogle
Car park machines at places like Barnwell Country Park were affected

North Northamptonshire Council said some of its services were affected, including adult social care, school admissions and the processing of blue badge applications.

Customers expecting to use parking machines at country parks were advised to take cash.

Jason Smithers, the Conservative leader of North Northamptonshire Council, said: "We are all very reliant on IT as this global incident shows.

"We are working flat out to continue to provide services to our customers."

Ollie Conopo/BBC Jason Smithers with short dark hair and beard standing in a libraryOllie Conopo/BBC
Jason Smithers, leader of North Northamptonshire Council, said the council was "working flat out" to provide services

A spokesperson for West Northamptonshire Council said it had "now managed to recover a range of systems which were affected by the global IT issues which arose early on Friday".

"Customers might still experience some problems accessing our services over the weekend and we apologise for any frustration that might cause," the council added.

Some schools, including Campion School in Bugbrooke, reported that the global IT issue prevented access to ParentPay, a system that takes online payments for things like school meals.

Campion assured parents that children would still be able to use the canteen, even if their balance needed topping up.

Toby Sanders with medium-length brown hair and glasses
Toby Sanders from the Integrated Care Board said the county's hospitals had seen a "minimal impact"

Toby Sanders, the chief executive of Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board, said: “Our colleagues at University Hospitals of Northamptonshire have seen a minimal impact on systems, and services are running normally, and not in a way that will directly impact on patient care or safety.”

The NHS said people should continue to use 999 or emergency services normally, and attend medical appointments unless they are told not to.

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