There is a “considerable backlog” in GP practices following the global IT outage and lots of work has been “shifted into the coming week”, a senior doctor has warned.
“Normal service cannot be resumed immediately,” said Dr David Wrigley, deputy chair of the BMA’s GPs committee for England.
He described the outage as an “unprecedented situation” which produced “exceptionally trying circumstances” and led to a “catastrophic loss of service”.
Friday was “one of the toughest single days in recent times for GPs”, Dr Wrigley said.
Many medics were “forced to return to pen and paper” and “much of the work has had to be shifted into the coming week”.
In a statement on Friday, NHS England said the outage was “causing disruption in the majority of GP practices”.
Dr Farah Jameel, a GP in central London, said she was unable to access patient notes, imaging results, medication history and blood tests.
Patients with minor ailments were being sent to pharmacies.
Over the weekend, GPs have been “pulling out all the stops”, Dr Wrigley said.
However, the temporary loss of the EMIS patient record system has meant a “considerable backlog”, he went on.
“Even if we could guarantee it could be fully fixed on Monday, GPs would still need time to catch up from lost work over the weekend, and NHS England should make clear to patients that normal service cannot be resumed immediately.”
Work is beginning on a “better system of IT backup so that this disaster is not repeated in future”.
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Disruption could take ‘weeks’ to clear
The situation has gradually improved over the weekend.
On Saturday afternoon, NHS England reported its systems were “coming back online in most areas”.
However, they were “still running slightly slower than usual”.
There has also been significant disruption to pharmacy services.
Nick Kaye, chair of the National Pharmacy Association, said he expected services to be disrupted over the weekend.
It is thought a faulty software update which caused the outage may have skipped checks before being deployed, experts have said.