The NHS has issued advice for patients hoping to see a doctor in Hull and East Yorkshire after an unprecedented cyber attack on IT systems.
A large number of NHS trusts in the UK were affected by the major cyber attack, including NHS Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals Trust which runs Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital.
The trust said all emails and web mail were blocked after the attack which caused many hospitals shut down their entire IT systems.
NHS England has warned that although all GP surgeries in Hull and East Yorkshire will be open as usual on Monday, May 15, some practices still may not have full access to IT systems.
Some surgeries will not yet have full access to patient records, prescriptions, appointment systems and possibly telephone systems.
Following the attack, which affected hundreds of countries worldwide, many GP surgeries are still bringing their IT and clinical systems back online.
However, the organisation said contingency plans will be in place and patients should be aware of other services, such as pharmacies and 111.
The statement said: “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.”
“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.”
What you should do if you need to see a doctor
- If you already have a GP appointment bookedfor tomorrow, this will go ahead. Please do not ring your surgery to check asthey will be extremely busy and attend for your appointment as normal.
- People who have GP appointments should turn upas normal unless they are contacted directly and told not to.
- If you need to book an urgent GP appointmenton Monday morning, you will be able to do so but please bear with us if youhave difficulty in getting through to your practice and keep trying.
- Please bear in mind that practices may berunning more slowly than usual if they are unable to access some of theirsystems and the public are asked to be patient with staff.
- All phone lines forGP practices are working. However thereis a possibility that practices that use electronic call queuing systems may beaffected. In this instance patients mayexperience some delays in getting through. If this happens, keep trying to get through whilst NHS IT technicianswork to resolve the problem.
