Health chiefs in North Yorkshire say measures are in place to manage the disruption caused by a global IT outage.

Up to 60 per cent of GP practices across the country are understood to have have been hit by the outage - which is affecting their ability to book appointments and issue prescriptions.

NHS England said there was an issue with the EMIS Web system - most widely used clinical system for primary care in the UK - affecting around 3,700 GP practices across the country.

The system enables GP practices to book appointments, examine records and includes a clinical decision support tool as well as helping with admin.

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GP surgeries across the nation have reported on social media that they are unable to access patient records or book appointments whilst the outage is ongoing.

Whilst they were unable to confirm the number of affected practices in our region, a spokesperson for NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board said: “We are aware of a global IT outage and an issue with EMIS, an appointment and patient record system, which is affecting some healthcare settings. 

“The NHS has long standing measures in place to manage the disruption, including using paper patient records and handwritten prescriptions, and the usual phone systems to contact your GP.

“There is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services, so people should use these services as they usually would.

“Patients should attend appointments unless told otherwise. Only contact your GP if it’s urgent, and otherwise please use 111 online or call 111.”

One surgery in our region, Beech Tree Surgery in Selby, said on its social media that whilst there had been no impact on its systems, "the impact on our external partners has had a significant effect on our workload and demand which will likely lead to some delay on our phones and front desk".

Another post by Pocklington Group Practice, which was also affected, said: “Due to ongoing Windows issues affecting IT worldwide, the practice is currently unable to function as normal.

“This may result in appointments needing to be cancelled and rearranged. Updates will follow when available.”

Patients with appointments should attend as planned, unless they hear otherwise, and should not contact their GP practice unless it’s urgent.

A spokesman for the National Pharmacy Association said pharmacies were affected.

Pharmacies also reported issues with accessing prescriptions from GP surgeries and said this would affect the delivery of medicines to patients.