Public asked to be patient with GP services and use NHS services wisely as IT systems come back online
GP practices across Hull and East Riding will be open as usual on Monday. However many are still bringing their IT and clinical systems back on-line following the cyber-attack, which took place on Friday 12 May 2017 and affected many organisations around the world.
Some practices will not yet have full access to patient records, prescriptions, appointment systems and in some cases telephone systems. However, all GP practices will be using well-tested contingency plans to ensure that services can continue to be provided.
The NHS is asking patients to continue to use the NHS wisely and remember that they can seek help and advice from a range of other sources, such as pharmacies or 111.
What you can do to help
• If you already have a GP appointment booked for tomorrow, this will go ahead. Please do not ring your surgery to check as they will be extremely busy and attend for your appointment as normal.
• People who have GP appointments should turn up as normal unless they are contacted directly and told not to.
• If you need to book an urgent GP appointment on Monday morning, you will be able to do so but please bear with us if you have difficulty in getting through to your practice and keep trying.
• Please bear in mind that practices may be running more slowly than usual if they are unable to access some of their systems and the public are asked to be patient with staff.
• All phone lines for GP practices are working. However there is a possibility that practices that use electronic call queuing systems may be affected. In this instance patients may experience some delays in getting through. If this happens, keep trying to get through whilst NHS IT technicians work to resolve the problem.
Other NHS services are running effective business continuity plans to ensure safe patient care at all times.
Hospitals have continued to treat patients throughout the weekend and are working hard to return to normal services. However, they are still likely to be very busy, so please only use Accident and Emergency (A&E) services and 999 only when there is a genuine emergency.
Those attending planned hospital appointments should attend as usual unless they are directly advised otherwise.
ENDS
