Northern Rail, Manchester Airport and Royal Preston Hospital affected by worldwide IT outage

Preston Railway Station. Pic: Blog Preston

Major IT outages are hitting industries across the world, with airlines, shops and healthcare affected and Preston and the wider Lancashire area has not escaped being affected.

The majority of GP surgeries in England are experiencing issues, the NHS says, with trains, dentists, shops and pharmacies in the UK also hit.

Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike says a “content update” for its Windows hosts was to blame and that it is not a cyber attack.

There are problems at Manchester Airport, Transpennine Express services and Royal Preston Hospital as a result.

The issues at Royal Preston Hospital, however, stem primarily from people using A&E services because they are unable to contact their GPs.

An NHS spokesperson said: “The NHS is aware of a global IT outage and an issue with EMIS, an appointment and patient record system, which is causing disruption in the majority of GP practices.

“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.”

Anybody with a scheduled appointment is being told to attend it as normal – unless they hear otherwise beforehand.

A spokesperson for Transpennine Express said: “Please be aware that some TPE stations and systems are having IT issues. Please purchase tickets on board if you are unable to do so in stations.”

A spokesperson for Manchester Airport said: “The global IT problems are affecting some of our airlines this morning. That means some processes like check-in and boarding are being carried out manually and are taking longer than usual for those airlines. The majority of flights operating from the airport are unaffected, but the terminals are slightly busier than usual as a result of the situation.

“As always, passengers are advised to check the status of their flights with their airlines before they leave for the airport and should follow their airlines’ advice about the best time to arrive at the airport. We also advise checking up-to-date travel advice as some train services have also been affected by the issues.”

“Some of our retailers have also been affected meaning they have been unable to process card payments.
We thank all our passengers for their patience and understanding.”

A spokesperson for Northern Rail said: “We are currently experiencing widespread IT issues across our entire network, which is linked with the issues affecting many industries and businesses this morning.

“Trains are still running however information systems may not be showing and we’re unable to provide disruption info in the same ways as usual. We’ll continue to add disruption to our X feed when known.”

Preston City Council confirmed that their services are operating as normal. Lancashire County Council are also unaffected.

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